A Certain Evangelion Pilot
by WriteShop
Summary: Third impact came and went, as Shinji rejected life as part of a hivemind. Now the former Third Child is a student in Academy City, living a normal sort of life. Sort of.
1. Chapter 1

This is a plot bunny that popped into my head. I am not certain if I will be continuing it or not

START

Shinji Ikari had had a lousy day. Sensei kept on and on about 'expanding personal reality via self visualization' or some such nonsense. The physics test had sucked. His head hurt - the voices just would not shut up. And it had started to rain on his way home from school.

Shinji Ikari had had a great day. It was almost a year after third impact, and he was alive. The world was still operating properly. The voices had given him the answer to that problem on the physics test. And the air smelled good.

Shinji sighed. It was summer in Academy City. But not like the endless, oppressive summer of before, in Tokyo 3. Maybe it was that Academy city was a cleaner, brighter, more upbeat sort of place. Or maybe it was just that he had changed.

Shinji glanced at his watch - it was getting late, and he still had to cook dinner. Having to take remedial classes over the summer really sucked. Being just a plain student was the best. As Shinji teetered between depression and joy, he decided to take a short cut through a maze of alleyways.

As he was navigating the narrow but surprisingly clean spaces between the skyscrapers that filled this city, he heard a sharp snap, like lightning, followed by a dull thud.

Another Esper acting out Shinji sighed I hope they aren't messing around in this alley He started walking forwards again, more cautiously.

It was then that he heard the pained scream.

It had come from the alley just ahead. Shinji dropped his book bag and ran in the direction of the noise, trying to recall the martial arts that Asuka had drilled into his head. Unfortunately, not much had stuck (not really surprising, since Asuka's teaching method was to hit him, and then call him an idiot when he didn't block correctly).

He rounded the corner to see a gangling white haired youth bending over teenage girl lying sprawled on the ground.

"Get away from her!" Shinji yelled and slammed into the boy, only to go flying in the opposite direction until, he was stopped by the brick wall of the alley.

"What have we here?" Accelerator stood up, with his freakish smile splattered on his face, "Another little boy trying to play hero?" He walked towards Shinji, stepping over the girl, who Shinji could now see was clutching her side in pain as she lay bleeding.

Shinji pushed himself off the wall, "No more! I'm not going to let you kill her." now it must be said that Shinji wasn't usually the hero type. But what he most wanted was a normal world, where people went about their everyday life - shopping, cooking, going to school. No more monsters or angels trying to kill people and destroy the world. HE REFUSED. Which is why things were the way they were.

So Shinji faced off against Accelerator, and as the most powerful level 5 ESPer reached out to touch him (and accelerate the blood out of his head), a field of orange hexagons sprang up between them.

Accelerator smirked, and poked the field with his finger. Nothing happened. His brows beetled in surprise. Shinji choose that moment to charge his opponent, pushing the AT field into Accelerator. The frog faced youth staggered back "What? How?" he demanded in shock.

Shinji stepped over the girl, protecting her with his body. A fact floated into his head, almost like some ethereal person had just whispered it into his ear, "You're Accelerator, right? You can control all vectors."

Accelerator tried punching the orange hexagons. Nothing happened - it didn't even give. "Yeah, I know who I am. And who are you, punk?"

Shinji ignored his question. "You can't get through an AT field. AT fields don't have a direction, they just ARE."

Accelerator tried to smash his way through the annoying orange force field, again with no effect.

"It's a scalar field, you jerk." Shinji continued, channeling his inner Asuka, "You can't do anything to it" Though he watched Accelerator try to push his way in with worry on his face, just to be sure. "I can do this all night. I'm not going anywhere." He knelt down to the girl, who was now starting to sit up.

"Your aid is not required, Misaka says, grimacing in pain" She spoke calmly, "Everything was proceeding according to, according to the experiment" Despite her brave words, her arm trembled as she pushed up off the ground.

"Yeah, kid, you don't know what you are getting involved in." Accelerator grimaced at the unique experience of being stymied.. "This fight is part of an experiment. The higher ups are going to be pretty upset if you interfere."

"Please let Misaka finish the fight, or the protocol will be disrupted." The girls said, slipping her combat goggles back over her face as she staggered towards her opponent.

"What, you want to get killed?" Shinji stared at the girl. Her almost emotionless reactions reminded him of Rei, "It doesn't matter who you are. You could one of a series of clones, for all I care, but you ARE a worthwhile person. You are unique. Please don't die!"

Misaka 10031 stopped in surprise, "Misaka does not wish to die, but that is why she is here. That is why Misaka is alive."

Accelerator smirked.

"No! No more dying" Shinji grabbed Misaka 10031's arm and glared at the white haired boy. "No more fighting"

Misaka stepped out of Shinji's grasp, "Misaka apologizes for disagreeing with you. You appear to be a kind hearted individual, and Misaka is deeply touched by your plea, but Misaka must complete the protocol" She looked dejectedly at the boy who had tried to save her, as she called up her electricity, encircling her right hand in crackling sparks as she stepped through the orange boundary field to engage her enemy.

Thump.

"Ow, whispers Misaka." The girl rubbed her nose.

Shinji smirked, "The AT field keeps people in, as well as keeping things out. I can do this all night. I WILL do this all night, if I have to."

The three teens stayed like this for several minutes, until Accelerator gave an exasperated sigh, "This so fucking stupid. We'll finish this next time" He turned and walked away, pulling out a cell phone as he went.

As soon as he was out of sight, a large group of girls gathered, as if from nowhere. Each one was the same build as Misaka, and each wore the same military grade image intensifiers. "You should not have interfered with the experiment. The protocol is now delayed." They spoke emotionlessly, one girl starting the statement, while another finished.

Shinji's eyes got wide, "You ARE part of a clone series!"

"Yes. That is why Misaka's life is not important. The Misaka series was created for the experiment. We live for the experim..."

SMACK

her voice was cut off by Shinji slapping the injured girl on the face.

"Don't give me that! You, each one of you, is a human being. Your past may all be the same, but your future CAN be different. You are all becoming individuals."

"You are not correct, corrects Misaka. We are all neuraly linked, so that we share thoughts. We are all..." Misaka 10031 trailed off, "Misaka can not feel the others. Communications is disrupted" She whispered quietly.

Shinji frowned puzzled, as the other Misaka's gazed on impassively, in an almost robotic fashion.

"This is very disconcerting. Misaka is alone, Misaka whispers in wonder and some fear." Misaka whispered, sinking to her knees.

Shinji started like a light bulb had gone off in his head, "Oh, it's the AT field. It defines the boundary of personal identity" He dropped the orange field that until now had still surrounded them. He knelt down next to the injured Misaka. "She needs to go to a hospital." He looked up at the clone swarm for affirmation.

"Misaka will transport Misaka to proper medical facilities, says Misaka"

As two of her sister-clones helped her up, Misaka 10031 turned towards Shinji and asked, "Misaka would like to know your name, Misaka asks with an unknown anxiety."

"My name is Shinji Ikari. I just transferred to Academy City after last term"

"Thank you Shinji Ikari. You are a kind person, Misaka replies as she tries to smile, despite not having much practice. Misaka wants to make a good impression on the boy who saved her. Misaka realizes that she is babbling."

Two of the clones looked at their sister in surprise.

"Good by" Shinji waved awkwardly.

"Misaka hopes to see you again"

As they were rounding the corner, Number 10031 twisted almost all the way around in her sister-clones' arms and yelled "Wait! Misaka would like to know your phone number! Misaka pleads"

END


	2. Chapter 2

This story is a little unusual for me, as it grew out of a plot bunny. I usually have the whole scope of the story set in my mind when I start writing, so that I know where I am going. With 'A Certain Evangelion Pilot', I am kind of feeling my way along. The story will be updated sporadically, and I hope it won't be too scatter brained

Well, we'll see how it goes.

Chapter 2

"RING"

"RING"

Shinji cell phone's ringtone sounded like a vintage 1950 telephone.

"RING"

"RING"

Shinji staggered out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his head as he felt around for the offending device.

"Yes?" he asked to the phone as he reached for his glasses.

"Misaka was wondering if you would visit Misaka in the hospital."

'_Huh?' _Shinji wasn't certain whom he was talking to. Though the voice did sound somewhat familiar. "Uhm, yeah?" he agreed, just to be on the safe side.

"Oh, Misaka is so happy. Misaka has been thinking all night about what Shinji Ikari said last night. Misaka would like to talk to you about it. Also, Misaka thought that Shinji was very brave, if very foolish as well, in standing up to Accelerator." All of this was said in a rush, like the girl had to force herself to get it all out.

'_Oh, the girl from last night. Right.' _Shinji sighed_. 'I guess the polite thing would be to go visit'_, "Ok, tell me where you are and I will come by after class."

"Misaka is at Academy City Hospital number 3, room 204. Misaka will await your visit." the voice sounded vaguely disappointed. Not that most people would notice, but compared to Rei, this girl was positively bubbling with emotion.

"Ok, great!" Shinji tried to put more enthusiasm into his voice as he shoved a bento into his book bag and made sure that his school supplies were all packed.

That afternoon, Shinji took a bus over to the hospital. On the way, he wrote down a list of chores that he needed to do that evening. Writing this down helped him concentrate. And he could use all the help he could get – a really obnoxious voice had been whispering about economics in Chinese. Or at least he thought it was economics – he only caught one word out a hundred. But the voice had been droning on since lunch time! It was worse than his old sensei in Tokyo 3.

Shinji got off at the hospital and made his way up to room 204.

"Hello, can I come in?"

"Yes, come in. Misaka is very happy to see you." The girl in question was sitting up in bed, propped up on a pillow. Shinji gave her an appraising look – she appeared to be ok – there was a bandage around her shoulder, but her hair was nicely combed, and she looked alert. "Misaka has been thinking about what you said, about individual identity. Misaka does not have much knowledge of what being an individual is. Misaka would like to discuss the merits of it."

"Uhm, uh… yeah." Shinji froze. He had gotten much better, but there were still some things he didn't want to talk about., "Where should I put the flowers?" He held up a small bouquet that he had bought in the lobby. The room was a very calm cream color, with sunlight coming in through a window off to one side.

"SQUEE! Misaka squeals in joy to have such a nice gift." The girl clasped her hands together, but the 'squeal of joy' somehow sounded… faked? "You can put the flowers right here on the night stand, where Misaka can smell them. Misaka will make sure to take them with her when she checks out of the hospital tomorrow!"

"Ok." Shinji wasn't certain what he had gotten himself into, but there was obviously something going on that he wasn't getting "How are you feeling? You looked like you were injured pretty badly last night." He moved the conversation to a topic that he could understand.

"Misaka is recovering quickly. Shinji prevented…"

"You don't have to be so formal all the time," Shinji interrupted. As he pulled up a chair to sit down in.

"Shin.. you prevented Misaka from being injured in Misaka's confrontation with Accelerator. Which was a very foolish risk to take: If Shinji had been injured or killed fighting the top level number 5, Misaka would have been very sad." The girl's face pulled together in a frown as she chastised her rescuer.

"But he would have killed you if I hadn't stopped him!" Shinji replied, exasperated. The Chinese economist had finally shut up. Now there was a very polite sounding woman talking about the right sort of gifts to give in any situation. Especially romantic situations.

"Misaka explained that Misaka exists solely for the Experiment. If there was no Experiment, there would be no Misaka." The girl replied calmly.

"No, you actually didn't explain anything of the sort!" Shinji sighed in exasperation. "And what sort of insane experiment has you getting murdered?"

"The sort that is supposed to produce a level 6." Came a voice from the doorway to the room. Another Misaka walked in. "Accelerator was supposed to attain level 6 by fighting to the death against 20000 Misaka clones."

"What! That's insane!" Shinji started up from his chair, "You can't let him kill you like that!"

"Kill them, not me. And you're right – it was an insane plan. But it's done now. A.. friend of mine," at this, the Misaka in the doorway blushed slightly, "put an end to it last night."

"Wait, you aren't a Misaka?"

"I am THE Misaka!" She proclaimed proudly, sticking out her hand and tilting her chin up, "Misaka Mikoto, the Railgun, third ranked Level 5 at your service. And who are you?"

"I am Shinji Ikari." Shinji shook her hand tentatively, "Ah, so the Misaka sisterhood are clones of you?"

Misaka ignored the question as self evident, "Thank you for rescuing my sister. And what level are you? You must be something, if you were able to stand up to Accelerator."

"Who cares? The whole level thing is stupid." Great, now there was a voice nattering on about synch ratios. But Evangelions didn't even exist in this reality.

"Oh, playing coy are we?" the railgun replied challengingly with a small smile, "we'll see about that!"

"Misaka does not like the tone of voice that you are using with her friend, Misaka says sternly." Came from the hospital bed behind the pair.

Misaka whirled on the clone "Oh, so now you grow a spine! That reminds me, I came here to give you a piece of my mind – I don't want you, or any of the other sisters, to let yourselves get hurt like that. You need to take better care of yourselves, and I promise that I will do better to try to help you in the future. I know I have been a failure up to now, but not anymore! This stupid experiment is over, and I want you to live a normal life." As she ranted the railgun ended up leaning in aggressively towards the bed ridden girl, who just nodded calmly.

'_She's a lot like Asuka, but not as pretty.'_ Shinji thought wryly.

"Misaka agrees to do as you recommend. Shinji has expressed a similar thought, and Misaka values his opinion highly." The bed ridden girl blushed slightly.

The railgun whirled to look at the older boy, "so who ARE you?" her eyes glazed over and a slight electrical aura encompassed her as she used her power to interface with the computer system, "Ah, Shinji Ikari, Level 4 telekinetic shield. Recent transfer to Academy City." She smirked at having bypassed security so easily.

Shinji shook his head in bemusement at her antics, _'Telekinetic shield… if they only knew'_ Not that he was going to tell them.

"Please take good care of my sister, ok?" Misaka added seriously.

"Um, ok?"

"Thank you." She bowed formally. "I have to go. I have to, ah, talk with a certain idiot." Again she blushed slightly.

Shinji turned back to the clone, "Ok. Your oni-chan is a very um, _strong_ personality." He belated noticed the scowl on Misaka 10031's face. It almost seemed like there was a black cloud hovering over her head. "um? Is everything ok?"

"Everything is NOT ok. You have been talking to Misaka, ignoring Misaka the whole time! Misaka says angrily, with a note of jealousy in her voice. The reason for your visit was so that you could come spend time with Misaka, not so that you could 'chat up' Misaka!"

'_Ow. my brain hurts' _Shinji wasn't certain when things had gone wrong, or why, but he was certain that it was somehow his fault, and that he had to fix it, quick. "Um, Miss Mikado said I should look after you, ah, so should I come by tomorrow afternoon so that I can walk with you when you check out of the hospital?" Shinji made his peace offering, looking hopefully at the clone to see if it would be accepted. He was perspiring freely.

"That will be acceptable, Misaka replies with a pout." The glower lost some of its intensity..

"Ok, great. I, ah, hope you enjoy the flowers," Shinji smiled, "I, ah have to get going now. I have an appointment" _'I guess I'm running away again. But it's ok – she's crazy.' _Shinji power walked out of the hospital.

CEP**CEP

"Hello?" Shinji knocked on the office door

"Come in, the door is open"

Shinji made his way into the small room, "Uhm, hi? My name is Shinji Ikari, I just finished the basic training, and I was sent to join this branch of Judgment starting in the fall semester?" Somehow, Shinji managed to make his statements sound like questions.

"Oh, that will be great! Do you have your transcript?" A teenage girl with flowers in her hair turned to Shinji with a smile, "my name is Uiharu Kazari, incidentally."

"Nice to meet you, Kazari-san" Shinji bowed formally before handing over his papers.

"You are a level 4? That's great – we need more upper levels with all the trouble that we have been having lately. There is still some skill-outs selling Level upper (though it's not the fiasco it was earlier this summer), and now there are rumors of a horribly muck monster attacking people." She smiled at Shinji before turning to file Shinji's forms in a big filing cabinet to her side.

"Shinji Ikari?" a voice asked from behind him. Shinji turned to face the speaker – it was a young teen with her hair in pig tails, "I'm Shirai Kuroko. I'll be showing you the ropes. You want to come on patrol with me?"

"Uhm, isn't it getting kind of late?" Shinji's mind balked at the idea of walking around at night with a younger girl.

Shirai sighed in exasperation, "and when do you think most trouble happens? Is working late going to be a problem?"

"Urm, no."

"Hey, I'll go along with you, I've been cooped up in here all afternoon!" Uiharu chirped.

"Ok, great!" Shinji smiled_. 'That's better'._

CEP**CEP

"So, I hear you stood up to the Accelerator. That's pretty impressive." Shirai commented as the trio walked along a darkening street.

"Oh, Why are you only a level 4 if you can do something like THAT" Uiharu's eyes got really big.

"I am a level 4 my ability is purely defensive – there's not much I can do with it. And honestly, the only reason I was able to stop that maniac was because my 'force field' is a scaler field, and Accelerator can only control vectors."

"Umm.. what's a scaler?" Shirai asked.

"It's something that has a size, but no direction, as opposed to a vector, which has both size AND direction," As Shinji replied, he blushed as he recalled how Asuka had tutored him in physics. "ah, I think I need something to drink, do either of you want anything?" Shinji pointed to a small corner store

"No, thank you, Ikari"

Shinji fled.

"You are being very polite to him. I didn't think you liked guys" Uiharu teased

"What? I'm not a sexists!" Shirai replied with a puzzled frown, "besides, Shinji doesn't really come across as a guy."

"Hmm, you're right, but discussing physics seems to get him all worked up." Uiharu smirked, causing Shirai to giggle.

"Uh, what did I miss?" Shinji came back, popping the top on his soda as he spoke. Some carbonation fizzed out.

"Aha! Thermal expansion!" Uiharu pronounced.

Shinji jerked as if somebody had just goosed him. "uhm, yeah? Maybe?" He quickly plunged the straw into the can and brought it up to his face so fast that he almost jabbed the other end of the straw into his nose.

Uiharu and Shirai shared an amused look.

They did not encounter the muck monster, though Shirai easily intercepted a purse snatcher, leaving him pinned like a bug for Anti-Skill to deal with.

CEP**CEP

The following day, Shinji sat morosely in class. Not that that was unusual for the teen. Aogami Peirce had put together a collage of photos of Shinji. They were labeled 'Shinji happy', 'Shinji sad', ' Shinji confused', and 'Shinji orgasmic' They all showed the same photo, taken in class.

"Hey, new kid, why the long face?" Motoharu called out as the students collected their books and shoved them into their respective bags. Summer school was out for the day.

"I got talked into walking this girl home from the hospital."

"So? What's the problem? Chicks dig guys who act all gallant."

"It's not like that – I barely know her!" Shinji held up his hands as if to push the very idea away.

"Fast work, my man!" Aogami slapped Shinji on the back.

"Would you idiots ease up?" Toma scowled at his putative friends. "I am Toma Kamijo. And you're Shinji Ikari, right? Where did you transfer from?" Toma stuck out his right hand.

Shinji shook hands.

"Uhm, was it just me, or did everything kind of blink out for a moment?" Aogami looked around the room, as if daring it to do that again.

Toma looked with puzzlement at his hand as Shinji quickly whisked his hand away. "I, ah came from another school in uh, Tokyo_" 'well, it was Tokyo 3, but since it doesn't exist, admitting that will just cause trouble'_ Shinji had always been an intensely private person, but he had become even more so since Third Impact. "I kind of kept to myself, so nobody realized that I was an uh, ESPer until recently." But he had become more self confident. At least, he could lie with a straight face now. Which wasn't necessarily an improvement.

Motoharu looked at Shinji quizzically, as if he didn't quite believe him, but before he

could say anything further, Aogami interrupted, "So, this girl is she hot?"

"Uhm, we're not like that" Shinji tried again.

"Yeah? Well, if she's hot, then maybe I'll come along and help you out." The blue haired teen waggled his eyebrows and elbowed Shinji suggestively.

Shinji wasn't intending to discuss Misaka or her looks. And he was a self confident young man, who could lie with a straight face and control a conversation "Well, she looks a lot like Mikoto Misaka…" he whined

Toma grabbed Shinji and yanked him away from the other two stooges "Is she one of the clones?" He whispered urgently.

"Uh, yeah?" Shinji agreed

"Hey, what are you guys whispering about?" The blond surfer dude asked.

."Nothing! We got to go!" Toma grabbed Shinji by the shoulder and pushed him out the door. "Shinji's late to meet his girlfriend, so I'm going too show him a short cut!"

As the two burst out of the classroom, Aogami turned to his friend, "I told you Toma has the hots for the Railgun – he's off to hit on a girl that just looks like her a little!"

CEP**CEP

"Don't mention anything about the clones, " Toma said forcefully as he walked with Shinji towards the hospital, "Let them settle in and decide for themselves how they are going to deal with the world at large. They have been mistreated enough, OK?"

"Ok." Shinji replied.

"So, are you the guy who kept Accelerator from killing number 10031 yesterday?"

"Yeah, I just stumbled across them as that grinning monster was about to finish her off"

Shinji said, anger for the first time leaking into his voice.

Toma glanced appraisingly at the other teen, "Well, good work. They're a little odd, but they seem like nice people. But be careful – don't confuse the sisters with the original. She's psycho." Toma blushed as he thought of his tried and true method of distinguishing between them. There was no way that admitting to stealing a peek under a girl's skirt would end well

With that warning Toma turned right, "I got to go – I have a hungry housemate I have to feed_" 'Geeze, I sound like I own a dog. Except a dog would require less work'_, "If you need a hand, give me a call."

CEP**CEP

Shinji knocked on the hospital room door. _'Why am I feeling nervous? I'm just here to walk her home.' _The door swung open to reveal number 10031, with her shoulder still bandaged and arm in a sling.

"Are you sure you're ready to check out?" Shinji burst out.

"Misaka feels fine, Misaka says with self assurance."

Shinji didn't look convinced, "well, let's get going" . They had to stop off at the front desk to have Misaka sign out, which proved more difficult than expected, as she couldn't hold the clipboard. Shinji ended up holding it for her while she filled out the requisite information.

"Thank you."

"Well, that's why I am here" Shinji sighed, "where are we going?"

"Misaka lives in an apartment building on Desert Plum road. It is not far from here." Misaka 100031 took Shinji's hand as she turned to walk in the correct direction. She continued to hold it as the walked, though she was blushing furiously.

The two teens walked in silence for a while before Shinji noticed that his left hand wasn't as free to move around as his right. "Umm." He glanced down at his hand, then at the girl walking determinedly without even glancing at him. He decided not to say anything.

"We are here" Misaka 10031 quickly let go of Shinji's hand.

The plain brownstone building was set right on the edge of an industrial park. _'Well, it's not the dump that Rei lived in'_ Shinji looked around, _'It's actually not bad, if a little.. sterile.'_. As they entered the building, the elevator at the back of the lobby dinged and started to come down from the third floor.

"I thought you lived here alone?" Shinji asked

That is correct" replied Misaka 10031 as the elevator opened and another Misaka stepped out, "Misaka lives here alone."

"Oh, yeah, right" Shinji replied sheepishly. _'Was it my imagination, or did the other Misaka glare at me?'_ "I should.." Shinji started

"Let me show you my room," Misaka 10031 quickly grabbed Shinji's hand before he could escape.

The ride up in elevator was extremely awkward, as both teenagers tried to look calm and relaxed, all the while not looking at each other_. 'It's just an elevator ride. Nothing odd about that. Going up to visit a girls room. Nothing odd about that.'_ Shinji recalled the first time he had visited Rei's room_ 'OH GOD, I hope she understands about nudity taboos.'_ Shinji started hyperventilating, _'what if she doesn't?' _While the idea of seeing a girl naked was definitely intriguing, he KNEW he would die of embarrassment if it happened again. His head would just pop.

As they walked out of the elevator, several doors opened and other Misaka stepped out of their rooms. Several nodded to number 10031, but most just glared at Shinji.

"Uhm, maybe I should go?" Shinji asked nervously. _'Why do I feel like something on a petri dish?'_

"Here we are. This is Misaka's room, Misaka says with anxious pride." The girl opened the door to a normal looking room. It was sparsely furnished, but that was in keeping with Japanese esthetics.

'_Hmm. It's cleaner than Asuka's room'_ Shinji made his way inside when something caught his eye. He picked up what appeared to be a rifle, with a pair of panties draped over the barrel

"Misaka gives a shrill cry of embarrassment, as Misaka devoutly wishes that Shinji pay no attention to the garment that is now behind Misaka's back" Misaka 10031 deadpanned as she streaked over and snatched the offending undergarment before Shinji could realize what it was.

"Um, Misaka, why do you have a FN F2000 rifle in your room?" Shinji asked calmly, having lived with Asuka, he had learned to simply ignore female behavior that he did not understand (he was less likely to be injured that way).

With that attitude, it was something of a surprise that he interacted with girls at all.

Misaka, noting that Shinji had been paying more attention to the weapon than the article of clothing that had hidden it, let out a sigh of relief, "The Experiment required that Misaka attack Accelerator. Misaka was given weapons to do so."

"But why? I thought you were a clone of Misaka, the Railgun" Shinji asked, as he carefully ejected the clip and emptied the chamber before putting the rifle down on a the nightstand.

"The Misaka sisterhood all have a fraction of the power of the original, making us each a level 2 or 3."

"Can I see what you can do?" Shinji asked this was the first time he had been on close enough terms with an ESPer to ask for a demonstration, and these paranormal abilities fascinated him. They were definitely NOT what he expected, post third impact.

Misaka obliged, holding up her hand as sparks snapped between the fingertips, like a human van der graff generator.

As soon as he saw this, several voices started whispering insistently in Shinji's mind spewing forth scientific equations. Most of them made no sense to the high school boy.

"Cool, can you generate magnetic fields with that as well?" Shinji isolated one voice that was expounding mostly in laymen's terms, and drew on that for his questions.

"Misaka will try" Number 10031 had never liked how the scientists were always asking her to do this or that, but somehow, it wasn't the same when Shinji asked. He was openly impressed, and very careful to be polite.

The two teens spent the next hour messing around with Misaka's abilities. Shinji was walking her through using a magnetic field to suppress van der Waals forces when Misaka pulled her hand away from the patch of floor. "That is enough for now, Misaka says with firm self discipline"

Shinji glanced up self consciously, "I am sorry - I don't mean to offend you, I just find this fascinating" Shinji blushed, recalling how much he hated doing synch tests and being poked and prodded by Ritsuko and her lab coated minions.

"It is ok. Misaka enjoyed discussing Misaka's power with you. You have many insightful ideas for how to use it." Misaka 10031 smiled at Shinji, "But Misaka is injured, and requires her rest, whether Misaka wishes it or not." She stated forcefully.

"Oh, ok. Than I'll get going" Shinji stood up

"Misaka would like to see you tomorrow" The girl stated, with only a slight blush. "And at that time, you can show Misaka some common recreations practiced by other teenagers."

"Oh, ok." Shinji paused at the door, obviously at a loss as to what to do next.

Misaka walked up close to Shinji and leaned slightly forwards. The two teens stood that way for a several moments before Shinji said, "Ugm, I guess I will see you tomorrow" and left."

CEP**CEP

"Hey, Shin-man, how did your date go?" Aogami called out as he walked up to the older teen, "did you get any action?"

"It washn't a dajt" Shinji forced out, around a mouthful of lunch.

"Yeah, Yeah, dude. De-nial ain't just a river in Egypt"

"Seriously, can't a guy and a girl be friends without it being all about romance?" Shinji asked, finally forcing down his mouthful of food.

The blue haired boy looked at him as if he had grown another head. "No."

"Yeah, with our friend Pierce, EVERYTHING is about sex" Toma interjected as he sat down with the others for lunch.

Shinji noted that Aogami's hand was still on his back. He slid a little further away from the blue haired boy. Just in case. "Hey, Toma, what's up? You look miserable."

"Toma always looks like his favorite dog just died. Because chances are, it just did. The man has the worst luck."

"Yeah, well word has gotten out that I thrashed Accelerator, so now every punk in the City is hassling me. What bad luck."

"Well, I don't have any more classes today, how about we hit the arcade?" This was from the bleach blond surfer dude Motoharu.

"No," Sighed Toma, "I have to go pack, I'm going to be going to spend a few days at the beach, to get away from Academy City until this all blows over."

Shinji nodded in understanding.

"Dude, you're going to the BEACH. There will be hot girls in bikinis. So stop looking glum like Shinji here."

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Shinji yelped

At the same time, Toma grimaced, _'But my parents are going to be there. And I have no clue what they look like, much less what sort of people they are.' _"Whatever. I should go."

"Hold up," Shinji waved for Toma to sit, while Shinji gulped down the rest of his soda,

"We'll walk with you."

"Yeah, there's no way anybody would mess with four dudes like us" Aogami jutted out his chest with manly pride.

CEP**CEP

"Where do you think you're going, punks?"

"This is the X-men's turf. And we're the X-men"

The four teenagers had been walking down a quiet side street, chatting, when the self styled 'X-men' had stepped out of an alley.

"You guys are cruising for a bruising." This was from a guy in a biker jacket with a shaved head. He appeared to be the leader of the gang.

"Hey, hey, we don't want any trouble" The blond magician stepped forward with his hands spread open and a smile on his face, trying to project a friendly appearance.

"Yeah, well too bad for you that WE want trouble." This was from another boy in a leatherjacket. He was shorter than the others, but he had an odd, maniacal look to his face. Kind of like Accelerator.

A thug with a blue mohawk giggled and held up a digital media player. "I'm Banshee. That's Cyclops." He pointed to the leader, "And we're going to bust you up" Another giggle.

"Yeah, I'm Wolverine" The short punk grinned as he pulled out a knife.

And I'm colossus." A high pitched voice came from a tall, enormously obese boy next to 'wolverine', who was waving his switchblade back and forth and grinning.

"So, what, you're going to scream at us?" Toma asked derisively.

"No, man" Banshee held up the music player in front of his right hand and blasted it to full volume. There was a visible ripple as a blast of concentrated sound ripped towards Toma, who put up his hand in a bored fashion, shattering the attack.

"Ow!" Toma staggered back – it felt like his skin was on fire.

Shinji raised his AT field and snatched up a foot long stick – a broken piece of a branch.

"Careful – Cyclops just attacked you with something." He quickly glanced at the thugs who were starting to spread out so that they could encircle the teens. "Toma, you take out Banshee, Aogami, Motoharu, you cover my flank and hit colossus. Stay behind my AT field until then. I'll take wolverine."

"You certain you can handle him?" Toma asked.

"Yeah, the punk doesn't know how to use a knife. Now GO." Shinji and the two boys darted left, while Toma ran straight ahead, leading with his right hand as he smashed through Banshee's attacks.

'_A stick is just a dull knife'_ While Shinji sucked at martial arts, he had put in hundreds of hours training with a progressive knife.

"Yeah!" He ran right at Wolverine. As he did, Cyclops turned to face him and stared, obviously trying to inflict some sort of harm, but Shinji's AT field stopped it without any visible effect.

Colossus shuffled to get a better view, just in time to have Pierce slam his shoulder into his gut.

Wolverine braced himself, sticking out his knife for Shinji to impale himself on as he ran up. But at the last moment Shinji pushed off sideways, leaping towards Cyclops, and back handed his make shift club down on the very surprised ESPer.

"Ahh" The tall thug grabbed his shoulder where Shinji had smashed his collarbone and collapsed in pain.

Wolverine turned to attack, but Shinji pulled his elbow up, spinning the club around for a fast watik strike to Wolverine's head. When the knife wielding boy paused as he tried to unscramble his brain, Shinji jabbed him in the stomach, causing his head to come forwards, and then walloped him in the side of the neck.

Wolverine staggered back, dropping his knife, which Shinji quickly scooped up. He looked around – Banshee was sitting on his rear, holding his broken nose with one hand, and his busted music player with the other while Toma lectured him.

Colossus was getting pummeled by the other two boys. He didn't look badly injured, but he looked very confused. Apparently, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

"Yeaa!"

THUMP

Shinji raised his AT field in time to block Wolverine's charge.

"You think you can take me?" The psychotic looking boy yelled as the nose he had broken on Shinji's AT field healed up, "I am a level three regenerator. Nothing you do can hurt me!"

Shinji held up his knife in a fighting stance, "If I open your femoral or carotid artery, you will probably bleed out before your regeneration can heal you," His voice was a monotone – this wasn't the shy boy who had been there moments before. This was the berserker. "And even if you survive, you will be stunned, giving me enough time to stick the knife through your left eye into brain and wiggle it around."

"Maybe you will regenerate from that, but you won't be YOU anymore."

Shinji bunched in on himself, making himself a smaller target, and readying himself to spring forward at a moments notice.

"Uhm" Wolverine looked left, looked right. Seeing no help coming, he turned and ran.

"Wait for me!" squealed Colossus, as he lumbered after Psycho boy, holding his flabby arms over his head. The other two boys followed quickly as well.

"Man, what a rush!" The blond teen said, panting, with his hands on his knees.

"You're crazy!" Shinji exclaimed. "We should get out of here!"

"No, you're crazy. Where did you learn to fight like that?" Pierce asked.

"Oh, um, here and there." Shinji prevaricated as he quickly folded up the knife and slipped it into his pocket.

END


	3. Chapter 3

Just a quick chapter, but I will be updating more frequently, as I have most of the story plotted out.

Chapter 3

Shinji made his way towards the Misaka apartment building. Number 10031 had called earlier, canceling their 'outing' (Shinji refused to think of it as a date) because she wasn't feeling well, but she asked Shinji to come by anyway.

He stopped before the front door: _'how do I know which buzzer is hers?'_ All the buzzers were labeled 'Misaka'. He looked up at the building and tried to recall which window was hers. '_I'll walk around to her window. If she's not there, then I carried out my obligation and can go home.'_ As Shinji made his way around to where he thought number 10031's apartment was, he noticed several Misakas looking out at him. They all had serious, almost dour expressions as they watched him. They did not look friendly. They looked kind of scary. It felt like every window had a Misaka, and each one was glaring out at him _'maybe I should just go home'_

"Shinji-kun! Come to the font door - Misaka will buzz you in." Shinji looked up to see a grinning Misaka hanging out of the third floor window.

"Ah, ok."

"And you should take down Misaka's phone number, for next time!"

Later, as he sat in her apartment, Shinji asked, "Uhm, it seems like the other Misakas don't like me very much"

Misaka 10031 frowned, "Misaka does not approve of you because Misaka has a crush on Toma, but that is silly: Misaka needs to grow up and keep Misaka's nose out of Misaka's business!" and she jerked her chin up in a sharp nod, as if to say 'so there'.

"Oh. Ok. Uhm.." Shinji paused, slightly confused, "you said you aren't feeling well?"

"Misaka is a clone, and was given a regimen of growth accelerating drugs to speed the process. But now that the Experiment has been aborted, Misaka is having her metabolism reset to more normal rate, so as to increase Misaka's life expectancy."

"What, wait! Your are saying that because of this experiment, they had you on some drugs that shortened your life expectancy?"

Misaka nodded, "The scientist running the Experiment did not want to wait, so they accelerated the maturation of the clones"

"That's… that's even worse. You are a person, not some sort of lab animals." Shinji said vehemently.

Misaka blushed, "Misaka feels a warmth in her chest when you say that."

"What was this stupid experiment about anyway?"

"The original experiment was an attempt by the military to clone a level 5 ESPer. But that didn't work – the sisterhood are all level 2 or 3. So the project was abandoned by the military. But it was then taken over by the 7th Medical Research Center, in an attempt to create the first level 6, by having Accelerator increase his skills in death matches with Masaki."

"That's stupid." Shinji didn't know much about ESPer powers, but his voices had dropped enough tidbits that he could tell that something was wrong with this idea, "Why fight to the death? And why fight what is effectively the same opponent over and over? It's like working out only one muscle." Shinji paused, _'well, maybe that part would work, but I still think it's a stupid, inhumane thing to do!'_

Misaka smiled at Shinji's vehemence, "Misaka thanks you. But now, metabolism altering drugs are making Misaka feel queasy." She returned to the original question.

"Oh. Well.. Then maybe I should let you rest?" Shinji asked hopefully.

"No, Misaka would like to experiment with Misaka's powers some more. That was fun." She said the last word like it was a new concept..

"Uhm, ok. What do you want to start with?"

"Misaka would like to continue trying to constrain electrons with a magnetic field"

"Ok, well remember how you held your arms yesterday? That seemed to help."

"Like this?" Misaka held her arms in front of her.

"Uhm, no, more off to the side"

Misaka obligingly move one arm off to the side and the other more up.

"No" Shinji replied, exasperated, "let me show you" He walked over behind the girl and started to position Misaka's arms correctly. Since he was behind Misaka, he did not see the small smile that formed on her lips.

CEP**CEP

"So you remember that purse snatcher we picked up on your first patrol?" Shirai asked Shinji, "It turns out he had a wad of cash and a bunch of music players in his pocket. When forensics checked out what was on the players, they found it was some hacked together Level upper."

"I thought Uiharu said that you captured the woman who was running it." Shinji had learned a fair bit about the past adventures of branch 177. Chatting with the other Judgment members was almost like having friends, but without having to talk about personal stuff. Like Evangelion or Tokyo 3. Or his father.

It was evening, and Shinji and Shirai were patrolling their assigned area when they heard the scream.

'_Thank god, somebody in trouble'_ Shinji thought as he took off running towards the scream. Shirai of course teleported ahead. Not that Shinji wanted somebody to be in trouble, but walking around with the pig tailed 7th grader was very awkward. Several people had glanced at them. If Aogami heard about this, he would never let Shinji live it down.

As Shinji rounded the corner, he was just in time to see Shirai demand that somebody surrender. Except the 'somebody' was a large pile of sludge, with a pair of legs sticking out horizontally from the bottom.

"Now get off of him!" Shirai finished. Nothing happened., "I'm warning you!" she growled. For such a small, cute child, she had a rather ominous growl.

Pthbt!

Gobs of muck spat out of the amorphous thing, spattering Shirai.

"Aarg!" she started teleporting chunks of the muck monster away left and right.

PTHBT!

A huge stream of muck shot out. Shinji leaped forward, AT filed raised, only to find that Shirai had teleported away. But his whole AT field was covered – he couldn't see anything. And if he dropped it, then HE would be covered with the goop. Shinji struggled to pull free of the goo. It smelled of sewage and old blood.

"Take that.. Aah! What are you doing, let go!"

PTHBT!

Thunk!

Shinji struggled to free himself. By the time he got out, the muck monster was gone, and Shirai, was brushing goop off her face.

"That was embarrassing" she muttered.

Shinji ran over to the man who was now revealed, "He looks ok, but we should call an ambulance for him.

"Yeah" Shirai pulled out her cell phone. "It's ruined! I'm going to kill that thing!" She growled.

"Here" Shinji handed her his phone, as he helped her pull her shoe out of a puddle of ooze.

"My, my, don't you two look cozy."

Shinji looked up "Asuka! Where did you come from?" He almost levitated away from Shirai.

"You know her?" Shirai was ogling Asuka unabashedly.

"Um, yeah, we went to school together before I, uhm transferred."

Asuka rolled her eyes, "Yeah, mostly. So what are you doing here, and why is your girlfriend covered in shit?"

"I'm not his girlfriend/ She's not my girlfriend" They yelled at the same time.

"Yeah, yeah. De-nial isn't just a river in Egypt."

"I am a member of Judgment here on patrol, and Shinji is my trainee!" Pronounced Shirai..

"Uhm, I'm not a traine-ow!" Shinji yelped as Shirai kicked his foot and stepped in front of him.

"My name is Shirai, I am pleased to meet – hey" Shirai turned to scold Shinji for bumping her, but Shinji kept right on falling. The boy collapsed to the ground, spasming.

"Shinji" Asuka rushed in, putting a hand to his forehead, "are you ok?"

Shinji started to dry heave.

"Oh, god!" Asuka looked up in horror at Shirai, "we need an ambulance."

The younger girl nodded, "we already called one. Is he ok?" She asked worriedly.

"How the hell should I know?" Asuka snapped, bending over the prone teen and taking his hand as he convulsed. "Oh, shit." She grabbed a wallet from her pocket and shoved it into his mouth to keep him from biting his tongue.

"Hang in there, Shinji."

CEP**CEP

Shinji opened his eyes. He felt nauseous, and his head hurt – it felt like somebody was hammering a spike into it, one at each temple. Slowly the room swam into focus. He was in a hospital room. Again. _'At least it's a different ceiling'_

He could see an IV stand next to his bed, with the bags hooked up to his arm, and an EKG was quietly beeping on his other side, with the sensors taped to his torso.

He vision swam in and out of focus, but he could tell that there was somebody in the room with him.

"Rei? What?" he managed to croak, "happened?"

Misaka leaned forwards and gave Shinji a quick hug before pulling away quickly "The doctors do not know what happened. You collapsed after fighting with the muck monster. You had severe convulsions and suffered two minor hear attacks. Misaka is worried. Misaka has taken some of your blood sample to the 7th Medical Institute Laboratory, so that the scientists there could check if you were poisoned by the muck monster." She managed to say all this in one breath.

"Oh. I'm feeling a little better." Pain pounded through Shinji's head, "Why don't you go home and get some rest."

"Misaka can rest here." She sat back down in the chair at the side of the bed, before reaching out and taking Shinji's hand.

"And who are you, and what do you think you are doing here?" Asuka stormed into the room. "Shinji needs his rest!"

"I'm ok" Wheezed Shinji. But either the girls didn't hear him, or they just completely ignored him.

"Misaka has every right to be here. Misaka is Shinji's girlfriend!" number 10031 replied defiantly.

"Oh, really," smirked Asuka, "in that case, I'm your worst nightmare." She leaned in towards the younger girl belligerently, "I'm the ex."

"Gurk" Shinji passed out again.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Shinji wasn't certain how long it was before he awoke next, but he came to feeling much better, with a clear head. There were no IVs or EKGs in the room, just a small vase with a couple of flowers..

There was no Asuka or Misaka either.

'_I guess I dreamed it all. I HOPE I dreamed it all'_ Shinji sat up. His arm felt a little sore, but otherwise, he felt as good as ever.

It wasn't long before a frog faced doctor bustled in. "Ah, you are awake. Good."

"What happened?" Shinji sat up in bed.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Said the doctor, flipping through several sheets of medical reports, "we weren't able to find anything wrong with you. None of the equipment detected anything wrong either. Not even when you were having convulsions and suffering a heart attack. If the nurse hadn't come in when she did, we would have never known – the EKG was showing a steady heartbeat. It one of the oddest things I have ever seen, and this city is full of oddities. Especially the last few days – people were seeing celebrities everywhere and everybody was acting funny.." The doctor sighed and took off his reading glasses, "Your girlfriend even took a blood sample down to a lab, and couldn't find anything odd"

"Gurk" Shinji gurgled.

"Hmm?" The doctor looked up to see if his patient had contributed anything to the conversation, "Nice girl. Red hair that color is very unusual."

"GURK!" Shinji slipped back down under the covers.

CEP**CEP

The hospital kept Shinji for another two days, for observation. Misaka 10031 visited both days. The visits were extremely awkward, at least for Shinji. Fortunately, Misaka filled the time chattering about something or other. Mostly about what the other Misakas were doing: Most were planning to leave Japan to explore the world, but a small group had apparently spent the last two days planning on how to capture Toma's affection. Not that they were consulting with each other: Each was convinced that nobody else knew of their crush. Shinji found the whole thing very hard to understand. So when Motoharu called, saying that the two stooges would meet up with him that afternoon to walk him home, Shinji agreed quickly.

"Hey, Shin-man, I hear you have a new girlfriend." Aogami came into the room, accompanied by his fellow stooge, "I AM impressed. I thought you were unconscious the whole time. You got to tell me how you did it!"

"Asuka is not my girlfriend! We just used to go to the same middle school" Shinji protested as he put on his shoes.

"And did you make out with her while you were going to the same school?" Aogami pressed as Shinji checked out of the hospital.

Shinji blushed and muttered something.

"HAH! You scored with a girl you weren't even dating! Way to go, man!"

Shinji decided that he had the right to remain silent, as anything he said could and would be used against him.

The boys were most of the way to Shinji's home when his phone rang. "Hello?"

"Misaka came to the hospital to walk you home, but you were not here. Misaka is feeling hurt and angry that you left without waiting for Misaka."

"Ahh…" Shinji's mind seized up. "Uh.. I forgot. I am sorry?"

"Misaka is very disappointed. Misaka mentioned yesterday that she would be coming by to walk you home." Came the despondent response. The two stooges had stopped talking, and were watching Shinji's panicked face with amusement.

'_Oh, she must have mentioned it during the whole 'Misaka is talking to Misaka about visiting Misaka' etc, etc, nonsense. She's such an annoying girl I should just tell her that I am not interested in her.'_ "How about we go to the shopping mall this afternoon, like we were planning before you got sick?" Shinji whined.

Motoharu smirked as Aogami mouthed 'whipped'. And pointed at Shinji.

"Misaka finds that acceptable. You can meet Misaka at the entrance to the underground mall."

Shinji let out a breath.

"That was your girlfriend?" Aogami asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.

"No. Though I think she thinks she is, I think." Shinji trailed off.

"Don't forget to buy her flowers." Motoharu commented sagely.

"What? Why?"

"You were apologizing for something. So, flowers." The trio had just reached Shinji's apartment building

"Uhm, guys, I hate to ditch, but I got to go get changed quick."

"Ah, yes, so that you will look good for your not-girlfriend" Motoharu smirked, "come on" he motioned to Aogami as he turned to walk off, "Have fun, Shinji. And loosen up."

CEP**CEP

"I have the Nostrodamus codex" The voice came from a black monolith labeled 05

"Good" Monolith 01 spoke "How goes the Adam clone?" The cabal was meeting in a blacked out conference room, with each conspirator represented by a hologram of a black obelisk with a number on it.

"We have a viable fetus, but we are not certain if we can bring it to term. All 665 of the previous attempts failed at the start of the 6th month."

"Irrelevant – we do not need it to be fully formed. As long as it has a heartbeat, it will suffice."

"The last heir of Lilith has been found"

"All proceeds according to plan." Chortled Monolith 01, "Finally, finally Human Instrumentality is within our grasp. Nothing can stop us now!" Maniacal laughter filled the room.

There was a quiet hum from the other four Monoliths. You could almost hear them sweat-drop.

CEP**CEP

Shinji was in hell.

He and Misaka 10031 were in the underground mall, window shopping.

"What do you think of that article of clothing, Shinji? It looks like the sort many of the girls in the mall are wearing." Misaka pointed to a spaghetti strapped top that looked like it would require WD-40 for even a girl with Misaka's slight build to squeeze into it. "Let's go into the store and see what Misaka would look like in it." Misaka stated calmly, resisting the urge to blush at the idea of wearing something like that.

Shinji was already beet red, "Ah, let's go to the next store."

"But this is already the third store that you have refused to enter, Misaka points out with annoyance." Misaka did not actually sound annoyed.

"But they were all girl's clothing stores!" Shinji replied in horror.

"Misaka is a girl. Where else should Misaka go to find clothing to model for Shinji?"

Shinji opened and closed his mouth like a fish. He was saved from having to say anything by the evacuation alarm going off.

This section of the mall was fairly empty, so the two teens stood for a moment gawking, trying to decide which way to run. "I think the closest exit is this way." Shinji turned to walk down one of the cross corridors. "I remember seeing a sign hanging over a door". They jogged down the corridor

Unfortunately, the sign was for a bathroom.

The teens quickly backtracked, but by then, the corridor was completely empty. "I don't like the look of this…" Shinji took Misaka's hand

There was a roar from up ahead. The two teens darted towards the doorway to a bookstore. The vandal-proof door had been lowered, but there was still a nook that provided some cover. As the teens watched, a monster made out of stone came down the corridor towards them. As the creature walked, it's head pivoted from side to side, and it periodically smashed its boulder like hands into the walls, as if to cause the most havoc possible.

Misaka and Shinji glanced at each other. "We need to go" Shinji said at the same time as Misaka pointed away from the monster "This way!"

The teens took off running, with the creature lumbering after them.

"Misaka thinks we lost it!"

"Good! I am out of breath"

ZWIP

"What are you two doing back here?" Shirai had materialized in front of them, "don't you know you're supposed to go to an evacuation point?" Shirai took a closer look at the pair "Onee-sama? But I just saw you with The Ape."

"Shirai, I'll explain later. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Shirai took another glance at the girl who looked like her Onee-sama. But less.. excitable.

"No" she finally replied to Shinji, "Anti-Skill is on their way – they will take care of it. You just need to evacuate out of their way." She took hold of both teens, "Hold on!"

ZWIP

They teleported up to the surface, to a gas station at the edge of a parking lot. "Stay here. I'll talk to you later – I need to check for more stragglers"

ZWIP

Shinji looked over at Misaka 10031, "Are you ok? You seem to be handling this pretty well" '_given how air headed you were down in the mall'_ Shinji didn't say that last part.

Misaka looked up at Shinji, "Misaka was created for the Experiment. Misaka had standard JSSDF combat protocols inloaded as part of Misaka's training."

"Oh." Shinji did not have warm fuzzy feelings about the JSSDF.

A sudden rumble shook the ground. Shinji put out his hands out to steady himself. "What was that? Oh. That!"

The monster had just smashed a hole in the ground and had surged up at the teens.

Shinji raised his AT field before it smashed them into a red smear. "Now what?" He asked, somewhat desperately, as the huge rock monster continued to pound at the AT field. While the AT field was in no danger of collapsing, it was being driven down into the ground.

Misaka glared at the THING that had ruined her date. "Misaka has a plan. Let Misaka out of your force field."

"Are you certain?"

"We can't let this thing rampage across the city, smashing and killing people." She paused for emphasis "Trust Misaka."

"Ok". Shinji angled the AT field, turning it into a disk instead of a sphere.. "GO"

Misaka leaped out, using her electromaster abilities to cancel out the van der Waals forces on the soles of her shoes. She pushed off, gliding across the parking lot like she was skating on the smoothest ice.

Her speed took the monster by surprise. It turned after her in confusion.

"Hey, ugly, over here!" Shinji threw a chunk of rock at the thing _'What the hell am I doing? I'm not Asuka'_ The creature paused, not certain if it should chase Misaka or smash Shinji first.

"Yeah, you! Your mother was a dump truck!" '_smooth Shinji'_. He grabbed a hose from the side of the gas station (where it was used for washing cars) and opened it up, blasting the rock thing with water.

'RARG!" it smashed its fists into dancing orange hexagons, as Shinji again raised his AT field before the extremely irate monster could flatten him into a red smear.

"Commence Misaka Network Protocol" Misaka 10031 stood at the far edge of the parking lot, standing as if in a trance.

"Cross-link all Misaka units" A small electric nimbus covered her. It was just a glow.

"Restart Misaka in Massively Parallel Architecture, with Misaka 10031 as Central Core." She intoned quietly.

All across the City, Misakas stopped what they were doing and slipped into what looked like a trance.

The nimbus around Misaka 10031 had grown in size, and there were sparks of lightning in it.

"Verify network integrity"

"Verified"

"Capacity is holding steady at ESPer level 4.8"

Lighting was sparking around her now, much like when the elder Misaka (the Railgun) was angry.

"Start synchrotron configuration" Misaka 10031 brought up her arms and started spinning electrons around her, constantly accelerating them the way Shinji had showed her.

Soon there was a 20 foot diameter toroid of light around Misaka. It was so bright, you couldn't look at it. Inside, Misaka had stored as much energy as she could squeeze in. Sweat was standing on her brow, and she had a look of fierce determination on her face. A look that was mirrored by all the other clones across the city.

"Electrons are at relativistic velocities."

Misaka turned to face where the rock creature continued to pound away at Shinji. The boy's AT field was embedded half way down in the gas station's parking lot.

"Get away from MY boyfriend!" Misaka screamed, releasing her grip on the electrons. A beam of accelerated particles smashed into the monster, filling the sky with a flash of light too intense to look at. An explosion rocked the city.

When she could open her eyes again, a small mushroom cloud rose from the spot where the rock monster had been.

"Oops"

And the gas station was on fire.

"SHINJI!" Misaka broke the connection to the rest of the sisterhood and raced towards the fire.

All at once, the fire went out. Misaka slowed down in confusion.

Shinji calmly walked out of the havoc.

"Wow." He stopped short of Misaka, looking at her with a new respect, and possibly a little fear.

The girl kept going, smashing into Shinji and enveloping him in a hug, "Misaka, I, Misaka was so worried about you. I thought Misaka had put too much zap into the ZAP and hurt you!" She wailed.

Shinji brought his arms up around the girl. "It's ok" he replied in bemusement. "Though I guess this isn't how you had intended the date to go" '_Thank god.'_

"Yeah" Misaka stepped away from Shinji, blushing "Misaka did not get to show off to you in all the pretty clothes."

"Misaka, I like you the way you are now." Shinji replied _'you may be crazy, but at least you aren't a vapid, shallow crazy, like most girls'_ Shinji wasn't certain how to say the last part without offending Misaka, though, so he kept it to himself

Misaka blushed even more. She quickly turned away from Shinji, but gently grabbed his hand.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

"Hey rookie! Wait up" Shirai called out

Shinji was walking home from his first day of regular classes. Except for the emphasis on ESPer powers and AIM theory, it wasn't too different from school in Tokyo 3. He was even able to get a nap in during math class.

"Hey, Shirai. Or should I call you Sensei?" Shinji asked.

"Eh, Shirai will do. Sensei would be weird, since you're older than me. And if you call me Shirai-sama, that just sounds perverted." Shirai caught up to the older boy. "So. You have some explaining to do. Start talking."

"It's complicated?" Shinji started walking again, with Shirai keeping pace.

"Uh-huh." Shirai nodded encouragingly.

"I don't know where to start. It's not really my story to tell."

"Uh-huh."

"Uh, I'm stalling, aren't I."

"Uh-huh."

Shinji sighed, _'I guess I gotta do this'_ "The girl you saw was a clone of Misaka Mikoto, the railgun." Shinji detailed as much of The Experiment as he knew.

"WHAT?!" Shirai was furious. The waves of anger were almost palpable, "How could those inhuman, dirty, PEOPLE let Accelerator murder all those girls?"

"Shirai" Shinji called out, trying to get the small girl to listen, "Shirai, it's done. The Experiment was stopped."

"It's still murder! He should be brought to Justice" Shinji could almost hear the capitalization.

"And who will arrest him? He's possibly the single most powerful person on the planet."

"Fine! But the researchers are human. THEY can be arrested!"

"Good luck finding them. Misaka says that she never actually saw any of the people in charge of the experiment: She just got phone calls and text messages from them telling her what to do. And now that it's all over, they have all disappeared. The only people still left at the labs are a couple of techs who helped running the cloning equipment, and one of the doctors, who was in charge of the sister's health."

"ARG! There must be SOMEBODY we can punish!" she growled.

The two of them walked on in silence for a few minutes.

"You know, you are kind of scary, sometimes" Shinji commented absent mindedly.

"What? I'm just a kid" Shirai replied self consciously. She was careful to use her best 'honor student voice', rather than her 'ax crazy stalker' voice.

"Well I meant your passion for justice." Shinji quickly backpedaled. "I mean, you are a very responsible person" _'I hope she doesn't think I'm hitting on her!' _Apparently he was not aware that most girls did not consider being called 'scary' as a come on.

"Thank you" Another minute passed. "I got a question: who was the red head we ran into after the fight with the Muck monster."

"Ah?"

Shirai rolled her eyes, "you know, when you collapsed."

"Oh, that was Asuka. We used to go to the same school."

"So." Shirai replied, obviously thinking of something, "You're dating Misaka 10031" '_obviously she must not be a completely accurate clone of Onee-sama if she likes men. Oh well…'_

"What? No! Why does everybody think that?" Shinji refuted.

Shirai snorted, "So, do you have this Asuka's phone number? If she is a new transfer student, I should make her feel welcome. Acadamy City can be confusing to newcomers." A slight blush started on her cheeks.

"Uhm," Shinji was completely confused by the abrupt changes in conversation. "I am not certain if she IS a student. Last I spoke to her," '_After third impact' "_ she wasn't planning to go to high school. I mean, I think she already has a college degree."

"Do you have a college degree?"

"No."

"Then how did you go to school with her?

"Um, it's complicated. Oh, look! Here's my apartment! I have a lot of homework, so I'm going to go do that now, if you don't mind. Bye. Thank you for walking with me. Bye-bye!" Shinji darted into his apartment building

CEP**CEP

Shinji enjoyed being a student. Yeah, it was a lot of work, but he didn't stress about it. Having fought huge aliens bent on the destruction on the world, and having SURVIVED the destruction of the world had a way of putting things into perspective.

Of course, before Third Impact, Shinji hadn't stressed about schoolwork either. The main difference was that now, he was getting good grades. Well, better grades. It would help if the voices just told him all the answers to the tests, but they kept going off on tangents. Like during the last physics quiz, he had to concentrate to tune them out when they started talking about Thermidorian reactions. It was a physics test – he didn't need some chemistry gobbledygook.

"Mr. Ikari? Do you have an answer for us?"

"Uhm…" Shinji realized that he had zoned out in class. Again. _'AIM field strength decays exponentially with distance' _. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. "AIM field strength decays exponentially with distance" He parroted.

"Very good, Shinji. I could have sworn you were asleep."

Shinji went back to daydreaming_. 'I wonder what Asuka is doing. We never did get a chance to talk. Dr. Frogface said that she took some of my blood sample to a lab to see why I had collapsed. Maybe she left a phone number. Hmm. Shirai wanted her phone number as well….I wonder if she's batting for the other team. Maybe I SHOULD give it to her. Could be funny.' _Shinji continued happily contemplating this and other actions that could abruptly end his life (or at the very least result in his emasculation).

RINNNNG

The students all started talking as the bell rang, indicating the end of school.

"Hey, Toma, what's the deal with you and that loli that hangs around you all the time." Aogami asked the black haired boy sitting behind Shinji.

"Nothing," Sighed the Imagine Breaker, "she's just a freeloader that I helped out once. Now she's hanging around me, looking for handouts."

"That is no way to talk about Index. It is very rude!' Komoe-sensei said as she came up to the teens.

"Ah, sorry!" Toma quickly apologized.

'_Wow, I wonder if he's related to Toji?'_ Shinji mused, _'they have the same mannerism'_

"Shinji-kun, I have a letter for you. It was addressed to the school, since apparently the sender doesn't have your personal address."

Shinji took the letter. His eyes bugged out – it was labeled as from "Dr. Soryu".

"I bet it's more Level testing. I hate that stuff" Motoharu complained as he read the return address over Shinji's shoulder.

Shinji nodded and tore open the letter. All it said was "Meet me. Tuesday evening. 8pm" and gave the address of a donut shop. It wasn't signed.

"Huh – that's an on odd place for Level testing" Pierce said, reading over Shinji's shoulder.

'_I can handle this'_ Shinji decided to act suave and just brush the whole thing off, "It's not about testing. She's just an somebody I knew from before I moved to Academy City"

"WOO HOO!" Motoharu pumped his fist in the air, "Scoring with the older women!"

Shinji face palmed, _'I can't win.'_

CEP**CEP

Shinji was drinking his coffee, lost in his thoughts. He had purposefully taken a table in the back of the donut shop, so that there was less chance that his idiot friends would see him. He wouldn't put it past them to be stalking him – they REALLY needed to get a life. Or a girlfriend. _'It would be nice to have a girlfriend. A sane one. Who was pretty. Why are all the pretty girls bat-shit crazy?'_

It was at this point that Asuka dropped down into the chair opposite his, interrupting Shinji's metaphysical musings. Shinji took a quick glance around the doughnut shop – it was mostly empty at this time of the evening: the only other customers were a couple of college kids working on their laptops as they drank too much coffee.

"Hey, Baka. Did you open my letter where all your idiot friends would see it?"

"Uhm, hello, Asuka, how are you?"

"You did, didn't you." Asuka smirked, "I figured you would. That's why I wrote in that creepy, stalker-ish way. I'm not following you or anything."

"How do you know I have idiot friends?" '_Not that I really have ANY friends'_

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Because it's YOU, dumkoff. So how are you doing?"

"I'm doing ok. School has started up. It's a little weird being in a class of people where everybody is 'special'. It makes me feel almost normal.. How about you, what have you been up to? And since when are you a 'Doctor'?"

"I'm not, yet. But I wanted to keep this meeting low key. I figured your friends would loose interest as soon as they saw 'Dr.'. I actually started a PhD program in BioEnergetics this past spring. I am going to be working at the Kawari Institute, though I'll probably be doing my research at the 7th Medical Institute – my advisor collaborates at both. Not certain on what yet – I got to figure that out with my advisor."

"So, what's this meeting about? Is the world ending or something?"

Asuka playfully smacked Shinji's arm "No, it already did that, baka. I haven't seen you in almost a year. I just wanted to talk to somebody who knows how it was before, you, know."

Shinji did know. Being an Evangelion Pilot and Third Impact had had a profound impact on his psyche, but he couldn't talk about it with anybody else. Nobody remembered it. It put a barrier between him and his classmates, making it hard to make friends.

"So, are you seeing anybody?" Shinji blurted out while his brain was distracted with other thoughts.

"No, of course not! I have a teenaged body and the mind of an adult. None of the boys my age are mature enough to handle me, and any of my peers that would give me a second look are all pedophiles!" She expounded. It sounded like it was an almost rote recitation. After a moment, she sighed, before continuing, "You know why we're not together. I'm a psycho bitch, and you're a spineless dweeb."

"Hmm" Shinji hummed, "It was spectacularly bad, wasn't it."

"Yeah," Smiled Asuka nostalgically, "You have a real talent for bringing out the worst in me."

An image of a flask of nitroglycerin with red hair on top flashed into Shinji's head, _'don't say it. It won't end well. Just be polite and nod'_. "Uh, yeah."

Which was the point at which Asuka leaned across the table and kissed Shinji on the lips.

Shinji's mind went completely blank. As his brain cycled in an error-loop, a voice called out. "There you are. Stop bothering that young woman and come on!" It was Shirai – she had just burst into the Donut shop, "The muck monster was seen two blocks from here, and I went revenge!" She grabbed hold of Shinji's shoulder and ZWIP teleported away.

CEP**CEP

PTHBT!

"Ha, you missed!" Shirai teleported out of the way of the stream of brownish, fetid smelling goo.

They were in a dead-end alleyway, and Shinji was using his AT field to block the only way out, so that the creature couldn't escape. The alley HAD been fairly clean, like most of Academy City, before the fight had started. Now it was filled with pieces of rotting ooze that smelled vaguely of blood.

"Ha! We got you know! Let's see what you look like under all that doo-doo" Shirai started teleporting large chunks of the monster away, trying to get to the ESPER underneath. But the monster just melted away, disappearing. "What? Where is it?" her head spun back and forth comically as she tried to see what became of her nemesis.

Shinji walked over to where the creature had been and looked down, "I think it went down the storm drain." He pointed down.

"I am starting to wonder if there IS a person under all that doo-doo."

"Doo-doo?" Shinji quirked an eyebrow at the younger teen's choice of words.

"Well, a properly brought up young lady doesn't go around saying 'shit!'" Shirai protested. Her eyes got wide as she realized what she had said, she brought up her hands to cover her mouth, but stopped when she saw that she was splattered with, ahh. 'doo-doo'.

"I hate fighting that thing! Now I need a shower, and another set of clothes is ruined!"

Shinji glowed orange for a moment, and all of the spatter on him was pushed out. When the orange glow turned off, it fell to the ground, "Oh, I forgot to thank you for getting me out of that situation with Asuka."

Shirai looked puzzled, "oh? I thought you were the one bothering HER"

Shinji looked confused, _'Is she one of those ultra-feminists that always assume that everything is the man's fault?' _"Uhm, no. You see.. we used to sort of date, a while ago. We were spectacularly wrong for each other. Us dating again would be a really, really bad idea."

"Oh, ok" Shirai started to grin. It wasn't a nice school girl grin. It was more of a 'I am evil, EVIL, Mwaha-ha-ha' sort of grin, "I can help you with that."

CEP**CEP

"Report!" Monolith 01 demanded.

"The Last Heir of Lilith is in Academy City." Reported Monolith 02

"The Instrumentality site is under construction, but there will be a slight delay as we need to obtain a supercomputer to finish the calculations." Monolith 03 tried to breeze through its report

"WHAT?" The roar came from 01. It was a blank monolith, but somehow everybody in the room knew wherever he was, the man who was speaking through it was frothing at the mouth, "What do you mean?! The Tree Diagram was supposed to have all the calculations completed!"

"Ahh. Tree Diagram suffered a catastrophic system error" Monolith 03 replied timidly.

"As best we can tell, somebody shot it down" added a querulous female voice from monolith 04, "As you would know, if you read our reports. I don't understand why we have to repeat everything to you three times…"

"We are creating a prototype Magi network. It should be finished by the end of the month" interrupted Monolith 03, trying to salvage the situation.

"Fine. And how is security?"

Monolith 04 lit up, "The Project is secure. We have no breaches. I have contracted for extra manpower for the final stages of Instrumentality. The mercenaries are being rotated in as we speak."

CEP** CEP

"Hey, Shinji!"

Shinji picked his head up off of the fist it had been resting on "yeah?" He blinked a couple of time _'What time is it? And where am I?'_

"Wake up, dude, final bell rang like 5 minutes ago!" Aogami slapped Shinji on the back.

Right. He was in school. And the math teacher had set off one of his voices to talking about 'non-Euclidian scaffolds' or something like that. It made his brain hurt.

"How about you come with us to the arcade?" Toma called out as he swung his bag onto his shoulder. Motoharu was standing nearby, adjusting his shades, and making sure that his shirt neck was open the correct amount. Who knew that looking disheveled took so much work?

"Uhm, yeah, ok." Shinji tried to get his brain working, _'I was pretty out of it. I'm surprised the teacher didn't notice. I guess all the practice back in Tokyo 3 paid off' _"That sounds like fun" '_I haven't gone to an arcade with friends since I went with Kensuke and Toji. Wow, that's lame'_

As the four boys walked out the front entrance of the school, Shinji froze, and a flash of cold went through him, "Uhm, guys, I can't – I just realized I got to meet up with somebody" _'Smooth Shinji, smooth._'

"Oh? What you have a hot date?"

"n..no. We aren't dating.." _'oh, crap. Now they know it's a girl'_

"Invite your girlfriend along – it will be fun." Motoharu said breezily.

Shinji broke out in a cold sweat, "I.. um may be next time."

"Shinji!, Misaka expresses joy to see you. Misaka was hoping to surprise you by meeting you at your school, to walk home together" The clone called out in her usual calm voice.

"You're dating, ahh.. the Railgun's sister?" Toma asked, with a quirked eyebrow.

"Um, it's not…" Shinji started as Misaka 10031 came up to his side and hooked arms with him. Shinji mouth stopped working as all the blood in his body rushed to his head.

"Are these your friends, Misaka asks happily? Misaka would like to get to know them. Misaka will join you on your outing."

"Um, ok?" Shinji replied quietly.

"Great, that's settled!" Toma grinned, "let's go!"

Pierce leaned over to Toma and whispered "So whipped."

Nobody commented on Misaka 10031's odd manner of speaking. After all, this was Academy City, where weird was the norm.

CEP**CEP

"Misaka will waste you, Misaka says disdainfully" the teens had been at the arcade for a while, and Pierce had just finished up playing a first person shooter that used a toy gun as the control. He had scored in 9th place, and was justifiably proud of his skill.

"Yeah, well you haven't done too well so far," Pierce replied belligerently, "It's like you never even played most of these games before!"

"Misaka is not very good at most games, but Misaka can do better than that pathetic showing on a shooter game."

"Guys, come on, no fighting! We're here to have fun" Shinji watched the blue haired boy argue with his 'not-girlfriend'. The two had been annoying each other for a while.

"Fine, I accept your challenge! And the loser buys ice cream far all five of us!" Pierce pulls out a handful of coins and starts feeding them into the game.

"Misaka accepts your challenge" She put her own money in and grabbed the toy gun.

When the game starts, both teens sighted intently across their toy weapons as they opened fire at the zombies that were hiding around the (virtual) mansion.

"Aaarg. Misaka growls in frustration"

Both teens are very good, but the blue haired boy's expertise with the game meant that he knew where to shoot before the target was even visible, giving him a decided advantage.

"This so unrealistic, Misaka complains"

"Aarg! This is not fair, whines Misaka."

In the end, Pierce won the competition decisively. "Ok, Let's go! I want ice cream. I think I'll get a 4 scoop sundae. No make that a 5 scooper, with extra toppings – I really worked up an appetite!"

"The toy did not work like a real gun, Misaka complains" Misaka replied, a hint of irritation seeping into her voice. Though whether it was directed at the game or the blue haired teen was not clear. "If we had been using real guns, Misaka would have wasted you"

"And where would you have had the chance to fire a real gun?" Scoffed Pierce.

Without looking down, Misaka calmly reached into her book bag and pulled out her FAL assault rifle.

"GAH! Don't point that at me!" Aogami shrieked as he brought his arms up around his head (apparently on the premiss that if he couldn't see Misaka, Misaka couldn't shoot him)

Shinji put a hand on the rifle, pushing the barrel down "Misaka, put that away before we get into trouble."

"Ah, do you always carry that with you?" Motoharu asked.

"Yes. Misaka feels naked with out it." Misaka replied calmly as she returned the gun to her book bag.

All of the boys present sweat dropped at that statement.

"Ah, I guess Academy City can be a dangerous place, and your electrokinesis isn't that strong," Toma tried to defuse the situation

"Actually, her abilities are pretty impressive" Shinji jumped to Misaka's defense.

"Yes, Shinji has been working with Misaka to improve Misaka's abilities. Misaka will probably test into level 3 or maybe even level 4 when this Misaka is tested for the Daihasei Festival ." Misaka said proudly as she hugged Shinji's arm to her chest..

Shinji blushed, and shifted slightly so that he was holding Misaka's hand instead. "Uhm, let's go get some ice cream" He added, blushing slightly.

CEP**CEP

The teens were lounging around a picnic table in one of the tiny parks that dotted Academy City (it was just big enough for two picnic tables and a couple of trees).

"The ice cream is very good, thank you." Shinji said politely to Misaka.

"Yes, it is good, though Misaka is chagrined that Shinji had to help pay for it." Misaka was sitting next to Shinji. Shinji was looking a tad nervous.

"If you don't have the money, you shouldn't accept challenges like that!" Motoharu challenged the clone.

"Misaka thought that Misaka would win." The girl replied calmly.

"You have to be careful of that, Misaka – if you keep accepting challenges beyond you abilities, you could get hurt." Shinji added.

"Misaka understands the principle. Misaka does not appreciate being patronized." Misaka replied with a small frown. She glanced over at Shinji, to make sure that he wasn't offended by her sharp tone, to see her putative boyfriend staring at another girl.

Misaka's eyebrows beetled together as an electro-aura started to form around her, and she asked in a low growl "Misaka wants to know…"

"Who is that?" finished Pierce when he noticed Shinji's stare.

Shinji ignored both of them, instead jumping up and running over to the girl. "Rei! I didn't know that you were here."

Rei Ayanami, still dressed in her Tokyo 3 school uniform, just stared at Shinji.

'_Uhm, right. I need to phrase that as a question'_, "What are you doing in Academy City, Rei?" Shinji tried again.

"Research" Rei replied without any emotion, as she turned her head to stare at the rest of the teens, who had followed Shinji out to meet the new girl.

Pierce stepped forward and stuck out his hand, "Hi, I'm Pierce Aogami. I'm friends with Shinji here. He already has a girlfriend." When Rei continued to stare without responding, he added " I like your hair. "

Rei turned to look at Misaka, staring at her without speaking for a moment before turning back to Shinji "This one is better than the last." She turned and walked off.

All of the teens stood, dumbfounded, until Rei disappeared into the crowd.

"Who was that?" Asked Toma.

Shinji sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "That is Rei Ayanami. She's my, uhm, quarter sister."

"QUARTER sister?" Motoharu asked, "Your parents must have been into some kinky shit."

'_You don't know the half of it'_ Shinji thought, but there was no way he could explain. So he didn't.

END

Omake: Clone Wars

"So, you are dating my brother" Rei examined Misaka 10031

"Yes, replies Misaka diffidently, I hope that we can be friends as well."

"That will depend on your behavior. My brother is psychologically delicate, and I do not wish you to cause him injury." Rei replied in her usual dead calm voice.

"Misaka will not cause him any harm. Misaka cares very deeply for Shinji" replied the clone in her dead calm voice.

"If I detect any harm to Shinji, I will have to take corrective action." Rei turned to stare at Misaka, to make sure that the younger girl understood that if she didn't live up to Rei's expectations that she was the one who was going to be on the receiving end of a big can of 'corrective action'

"Are you threatening Misaka?"

"Yes." Rei replied, glad that Shinji's girlfriend wasn't as simple minded as she appeared.

"Misaka will take care of herself." Replied 10031, as a dozen other Misaka clones wearing their image intensifiers stepped out of the shadows to surround the pair. "Misaka does not like being threatened."

"That is irrelevant. If you cause harm to my brother, you will suffer the consequences." Dozens of glowing read eyes appeared in the shadows, and one could just barely discern that they belonged to a hoard of blue haired teenage girls standing silently, watching the Misakas.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys. A little feedback would be appreciated, because I am running out of ideas. this arc will conclude in the next chapter, and that's all I got.

Chapter 6

"Misaka must say, your sister is very creepy" Said Misaka in her calm voice. The teens were standing out on the side walk, after their brief encounter with Rei. It was almost six, and the crowds of people coming home from work was pretty thick, so the teens retreated to the edge of the mini-park.

"You said it" Aogami interjected. "So what's the deal with her? You said that she's your quarter sister, how exactly does that work?"

The other boys also looked curious, especially Motoharu, who reminded Shinji a lot of Kaji, "Uhm, she had some, I mean.." He was at a loss for how to explain Rei, without taking three hours (and being locked up in a looney bin: even Academy City can only accept so much weird)

"Misaka is annoyed" Pronounced the clone calmly, "You said that you would help Misaka move this afternoon, but all you do is hang out at the arcade. Misaka would like you to come and help now." She then looked over to the other three boys, "You are welcome to come help also – Misaka is moving out of the Misaka dorm to a new apartment."

Misaka grabbed Shinji's hand started to lead him back toward her dorm.

"Uh, no thanks" "I'd like to help, but I have homework" came the replies from the other boys. The slackers quickly moved off in another direction.

"See you tomorrow, Shinji!"

While the other boys were swallowed by the crowd, Shinji looked at Misaka in surprise "I don't remember you mentioning the move."

"Misaka did not mention it because Misaka only found out that the move was approved this morning. Misaka replies smugly."

"Then.."

"Misaka noticed that you don't like to talk about yourself, so Misaka came to your rescue when your inconsiderate friends pestered you with questions." Misaka replied as she walked side by side with Shinji, holding his hand.

"Uhm.. Thanks. You are a good friend" Shinji gave the clone a quick smile.

"Girlfriend" Corrected Misaka, blushing.

The pair walked on for a few moments.

"Girlfriend" agreed Shinji.

CEP**CEP

"Uhm, WHY are you moving?" Shinji asked, as he held the box of clothes shut so that Misaka 10031 could tape it up. "This apartment seems like it's pretty nice". Shinji was mostly on auto-pilot – cleaning came naturally to him, so he let his body it, as his mind kept circling _'When I said 'girlfriend', did that officially make us a couple? Or does 'girlfriend' just mean a friend who is a girl? She's not acting any different. Should _I_ be acting different?'_

"It's nice, if you don't mind Misaka talking about boys all the time. And it's always the SAME boy – Toma. And Misaka thinks Misaka won't realize whom Misaka is talking about if Misaka doesn't use his name. Like the other Misaka isn't talking about the same boy. Does Misaka think Misaka doesn't realize? Or is Misaka just that stupid? Gods, Misaka hopes Misaka is a defective clone of Misaka. Misaka rants with some fervor" Number 10031 spoke calmly and rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Uh, yeah. I guess that would get annoying pretty fast" _'what on earth did she just say? I know that the other guys are always complaining that they can't understand girls, but I don't think they meant THIS. She's almost as bad as Asuka' _"Um, Misaka, could you maybe use the first person pronoun sometimes. You know, as a special favor for me?"

"Misaka will try" Shinji girlfriend replied as she grabbed another box and, after making sure that Shinji couldn't see what she was doing, started transferring the contents of her 'unmentionables' drawer into it: Panties, bras, socks, spare ammo clips. "Also, the rent at this apartment is going to go up – many of the sisters are moving out, and Misaka had used collective bargaining to convince the landlord to keep the rent low."

Shinji stopped to consider the buying power of the Misaka collective _'I wonder if clothing manufacturers call them to ask what their favorite color is. Thank god there aren't any clones of Asuka.' _Shinji paused to compare the two girls,_ 'Misaka may be weird, but she's nowhere near Asuka-crazy.' _He peered at his 'girlfriend' out of the corner of his eyes, _'She should smile more. She would be really good looking if she did.'_

The silence extended for several minutes before "Are you going to be competing in the Daihasei Festival? Misaka asks, abruptly changing the topic"

"I guess. All the schools are. How about you?"

"Misaka will be competing, since Misa.. Since _I_ am enrolled at the 2nd Ordinary Middle School. But most of the sisters are not - Misaka is intending to travel and see the world instead. Misaka is obviously not thinking about Misaka's future." She replied with a disdainful sniff.

"Oh, ok. Well, tell me when your school is competing, so that I can come cheer you on" Shinji smiled as he sealed up the box, "I think that's it, at least until the movers come tomorrow."

Misaka nodded, "And I will come to cheer on your team," Misaka paused, and then with a blush continued, "Maybe Misaka will meet your parents there."

Shinji didn't reply, instead occupying himself with moving a couple of boxes.

"Your parents are coming, right?" Misaka asked.

"Um, no" Shinji replied.

Misaka turned towards him, "Misaka would like to know why your parents are being so inconsiderate. Misaka asks with some rancor. Parents should take their obligations seriously, Misaka lectures"

"Umm. They can't come."

Misaka frowned, "Misaka frowns. Misaka understands that you are very private and don't like to talk about yourself, but Misaka…, but I am your girlfriend. You can tell _me_"

There was an awkward silence….

It stretched on. Shinji looked around for someplace to hide.. erg.. pack stuff.

Shinji's phone rang, "Hello?" _'thank god'_

"Shinji? Where are you? We need you at the Matsuya store, opposite the subway entrance – we are have a psycho throwing fireballs around, and Anti-Skill needs someone to provide cover." It was Shirai, in full 'commanding officer' mode.

"I'm coming!" Shinji jumped up.

"Where are you? I will pick you up."

"Uhm," Shinji sweat dropped at the thought of Shirai finding out that he was at a girl's apartment, "I'll be coming down Desert Plum road, near the 7th Medical Institute"

Shinji ran out.

CEP**CEP

There was a roar as the sheet of flame swept over the parked cars, brushing the building they were alongside as well. As the flame passed, the cars were left as molten hulks, but the buildings were completely untouched.

"Who is that guy?" Shinji asked. He and Shirai were hunkered down with a squad of Anti-Skill in an alley. Shinji had been using his AT field to keep the pyromancer from frying them, which is what had led the frustrated terrorist to blow up the cars.

"According to Uiharu, his name is Suzaku Kurasawa. He's a level 3 pyrokinetic." Shirai replied.

"That guy?" Shinji looked incredulously as a fist shaped from fire pounded on the AT field capping the alley, "There's no way he's a level 3"

Shirai nodded, "He must be on the new level upper. He's more like a high level 5 right now"

"Why is he doing this?" The Pyromancer was standing in the street in front of the Matsuya Department store. The area was pretty much empty, as everybody had already fled, but there were several charred lumps that were once bodies strewn about near Pyromancer. The Pyromancer himself was surrounding by a tower of flame, part of which was reaching out to attack.

"I don't know, but this new level upper seems to make people go psycho."

A squad of Anti Skill hiding on the second floor of the Department store used Suzaku's focus on the alley to open fire on his back.

The bullets burned to nothingness before they could reach him.

"Kami-sama – that's not level 5" Whispered one of the Anti-Skill. The fire was like a thing alive.

A bar of fire swept across the windows where the shots had come from, shattering windows, but not even scorching the building.

"Shit. He's going to kill them!" The Anti-Skill squad opened fire on the Pyromancer.

Suzaku whirled back towards the alley, sweeping fire over it. Shinji focused his attention, blocking the fire from reaching the people hiding next to him.

"Kid, can you hold your shield as we advance? Maybe we can do something if we get him in a crossfire." Yomikawa Aiho, The squad leader asked, hoisting his assault rifle.

Shinji nodded.

"Ok." The squad ran out onto the street, firing. They tried to circle around the pyromancer. Shinji ran with them, his AT field flickering into existence whenever the flames lashed at them

In the mean time, Shirai rose from her crouch in the alley, sighted on the flaming teen, and teleported her needles straight into his arm. Or at least she tried – the fire had distorted her view of him, so the needle just nicked him.

With a roar, the pyromancer sent sheets of flame in all directions. The tower of flame around him swelled to twice its size, so that he was a barely visible blur inside it.

"Oh, shit!" Shinji's eyes got big he reached out with his AT field, creating a globe around the pyromancer, containing the flames.

Shinji staggered under the strain.

"Can you use your force field to knock him out, or cut off his air?" The Anti-Skill leader called out.

"No, I can't stop it. He's not burning anything – he's doing nuclear fusion! And he just ramped it up – that tower of fire is exerting so much pressure that I can barely hold back his blows. I can't reach the crazy pyro.". He continued to hold back the flames, but the strain was showing. Shinji knew that the angels had used their AT fields offensively, but he just couldn't envision using the physical representation of his own self to hurt others.

The squad used the opportunity to open fire, but their bullets had no effect.

ZWIP

"I can't see him to get a clear target for teleportation" Shirai gasped – she had a burn on one arm. "Can you do anything? If he gets free, he's going to kill people"

Sweat was standing out on Shinji's forehead as he nodded.

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Then he dropped his AT field and reached his arms out towards the pyromancer.

The pyromancer took the opportunity to shoot flames at the group. As the curtain of flame rolled towards them, the flame just… disappeared, like somebody had thrown a switch. Shinji and the Anti-Skill squad were buffeted by a warm breeze.

"The hell?" The pyromancer looked at himself in shock – all of the fire was out.

ZWIP

CLUNK

A chunk of concrete smashed into the teen's head, knocking him to the ground.

As Anti-skill raced in to sedates and take control of the pyromancer, Shinji slumped to the ground. After a few moments, as it became clear that it was all over, people started coming out of the department store. Some came out tentatively, peering around, while others burst through the doors and almost ran for the closest cross street.

Shinji just sat down on the ground and dropped his head into his hands.

"Hey, there you are. I guess you didn't screw up, baka." A frowning Asuka leaned over the exhausted Shinji, a shopping bag over her shoulder, "come on, let's go get you something to drink."

Shinji nodded, and let Asuka pull him up. "What are you doing here?" He asked, puzzled.

"Shopping. DUH." They made their way to a fast food joint, where Asuka made a point of ordering Shinji a soda.

"Sit. Here. Drink" She sat down next to him. After a moment, Asuka twisted around so she could get a close look into his eyes, "You aren't getting enough sleep, baka!"

"Gah! Asuka! Personal space!" Shinji jerked away.

"Well, that's different" replied the red head, obviously non-plussed by Shinji's reaction. Then, with a sigh, she continued, "as much fun as it is to torture you, I actually want to talk to you about something."

"Oh?" Shinji asked, taking a drink. Usually, Asuka's antics made him confused and a little frustrated. Now, they were just annoying.

"Yeah. I was helping one of the researchers clean up the lab, to make some space for my stuff, when I came across a binder titled 'Human Instrumentality Project."

Shinji choked on his soda. "Maybe it's something different. There's no way…"

Asuka shrugged." I hope so. I didn't get a chance to look inside except for a quick glance at one page. But there was something about 'ego boundaries'." She sighed, "I have a really bad feeling about this"

Shinji nodded thoughtfully, "I saw Rei."

"Who's Rei?" asked a voice at his shoulder.

"Gah!" Shinji startled, spilling soda all over himself. He leaped up to try to contain the mess.

"So what are you guys talking about?" Shirai teleported the spilled soda off of Shinji's chair and sat down next to Asuka.

"Rei is Shinji's sister. She's.. um, estranged" Asuka concluded, placing extra emphasis on the 'strange' part of the word.

"I'll be back" Shinji said, heading off towards the bathroom, holding his wet shirt away from his body.

Both girls sat in awkward silence for a few moments.

"So, you know Shinji pretty well?" Shirai asked the older girl, leaning slightly towards her.

"Yeah, we dated." Asuka replied, leaning slightly away without noticing it.

"So you dated, or you DATED dated?" Shirai hinted, leaning in towards Asuka,

Asuka scowled at the overly intrusive girl, "Well, imagine you and your boyfriend are the last people on earth. That kind of dated dated." She replied flippantly.

"What exactly are you implying?" Shirai growled.

"So what are you guys talking about?" Shinji sat back down, taking the seat across from the girls.

"Oh, hey there you are. Good work with the Pyro, rookie." Shirai beamed. "You saved a lot of lives."

'_Mood swing much?'_ Asuka barely restrained herself, deciding that such comments were beneath her. At least with Shinji present. "Yeah, you did ok. Just like the old days." Her expression started to darken even more.

"Ah," Shinji thought quick, as he saw the impending storm approaching, "Ah, how come so many of the teachers are in Anti-Skill? It's kind of weird seeing your Gym teacher toting an assault rifle" _'almost as weird as having a girlfriend who carries one in her book bag.'_ Shinji's mind almost shut down at the idea of a 'girlfriend' '_well, she's just a friend who's a girl'. _This thought was followed by_ 'I can't let Asuka find out about her – she'll kill her!'. _Pause_. 'Oh, right. Asuka knows. And nobody's dead. Yet'_

"Not really," replied Shirai, "Think about it – kids get into fights, sometimes. A teacher has to be able to help keep students safe as well as educating them. But most of us students have special powers. So the board of directors of Academy City recruited as many former cops and retired military to work here as they could."

"Oh." Replied Shinji, "that makes sense"

Asuka snorted, "You mean you really didn't figure that out? I thought all incoming students had to sit through the 'Staying Safe' seminar."

"Uhm," Shinji blushed, remembering the voices in his head doing gangsta rap during the presentation, "I kind of slept through it?"

"Baka, it's a wonder you manage to survive on your own" Asuka sighed.

Shirai nodded her agreement. "It's a good thing you have a level 4 force field." She paused in thought, "How did you put out the guy's fire with a force field? Didn't you say that he was running a fusion reaction?"

"Ah, yeah, " Shinji started to sweat, "I think he was using fusion, as there was no fuel for him to be burning. Look, I got to get going – I have some things to take care of. You guys have a good time. By!" Shinji got up and waved behind him as he quickly walked away, just barely avoiding walking into a chair.

As he power walked (he did_ not_ run) away, it occurred to him that he actually did have unfinished business _'Misaka is going to be really pissed. In her calm, sweet way. I need to go back to her apartment and apologize'_

But Shinji headed home instead.

CEP**CEP

A young woman was walking down an empty street at night, she looked exhausted, physically and emotionally. Behind her, she was dragging a large suitcase. All of a sudden, a sheet of orange hexagons formed between her and the suitcase, right across the handle.

THUNK

The orange field quickly expanded out, in a sharp pulse. The young woman was taken by surprise and flung into the wall, hard enough to shatter bones. The orange AT field then formed a sphere around another young woman as she calmly bent over to pick up the suitcase.

CEP**CEP

The following day, school crawled. Shinji barely paid attention in class, and all of his voices were stern, matronly voices lecturing on proper manners. Usually several at once. _'I am a complete heel. I need to call Misaka and apologize for disappearing on her like that_.' Nevertheless, he didn't work up his courage to do so until after school.

Shinji was standing by the widows of the hallway, listening to the phone ring when Pierce came up. When Shinji hung up, Pierce said, "hey, you want to come down to the gym, we're getting some practice in for the Festival."

Shinji pondered, '_I should go check on Misaka. Wait – she was moving today. I have no idea where her new apartment is.'_ "Ok"

The gym was full of teens in small groups chatting and generally hanging out. Very little practice of any sort was taking place. At one end of the gym was a large contraption with a couple of lab coated science types nurse-maiding it.

"What's that for?" Shinji asked as they walked in

"Oh, that? That's where they do level testing. I think you can go find out how strong your abilities are, so that you can plan how best to use them during the games. Come on, I'll introduce you to Fukiyose Seiri. She's hot." Of course, Pierce found almost all girls his age 'hot' – he wasn't terribly picky. Which might explain why he didn't have a girlfriend.

Shinji nodded and went along.

"There you are!" An athletic looking girl appeared in front of them. "We need to start practicing if we are going to win tomorrow!"

The blue haired boy rolled his eyes, "yeah, like anybody else here is practicing."

"Well, they should be. Give me a hand in calling them to order" She turned to the rest of the room and yelled "Hey, everybody listen up!"

Nothing happened

Steam began to come off of Seiri (for that was who the girl was), and she let out a wall-rattling yell, "HEY"

The teens stopped talking, stunned,

"That's better. We are going to start practicing for the games. We have a lot of talent in this school, with a little hard work we will WIN!" She bounced up and down and punched her hand into the air, "First, callisthenics, to get us warmed up. You" she pointed at Shinji, "get over there and lead the right side of the gym. You" This to Pierce, who was staring enraptured at Seiri as she 'bounced' "lead the guys on the left"

Pretty soon, the gym was in motion.

CEP**CEP

"Oh, man" Shinji flopped down onto his bed. It was dinnertime, and he had just escaped from drill sergeant Seiri. Shinji had never been terribly athletic, and now everything hurt. '_How is making us exhausted and in pain going to help us win tomorrow?'_ Though honestly, Asuka or Toji would have had no problem with that level of exercise.

'_I better try again'_ Shinji pulled out his phone and called Misaka 10031. On the third ring, she picked up.

"Hello? Asks Misaka with a polite tone of voice to indicate interest, but with some reserve, just in case this is another telemarketer"

"HiMisaka. Sorryforrunningoutonyou" Shinji quickly forced out.

There was a slight pause as Misaka puzzled out what Shinji had just said, "Hi, Shinji. Please speak slower – you were harder to understand than Misaka when Misaka is talking about Misaka."

"Uhm, I hope you're not angry with me?"

"Misaka,.. I was a little upset, but now… Yesterday, somebody recovered the Tree Diagram Remnant."

"I thought that it had crashed or something."

Misaka continued, as if she hadn't heard Shinji. "Tree Diagram was keeping track of the data from the Experiment. If whoever recovered the Remnant gets that data, they may decide to restart the Experiment." Misaka's voice was getting agitated – something very rare for the usually imperturbable girl, "I don't want to die".

"I'll come right over!" Shinji staggered up and pulled on his shoes, "Umm, where am I going?"

Misaka gave him her new address.

"That's just two doors down."

"Really? What a coincidence, replies Misaka with feigned surprise. It is a very nice neighborhood, and the rent is cheap." Some of the tension had drained from her voice.

"Well, I'll be right there."

CEP**CEP

"So, do you know what happened?" Shinji asked. He had just come in to Misaka's apartment, and was standing in her entryway.

Misaka shook her head, "all Mis..I know is that somebody recovered the Remnant, and then there was some sort of fight, and your friend Shirai from Judgment got injured, and somebody made off with the Remnant." She sounded worried again.

Shinji came up to the girl and awkwardly put his arm around her. "Well, who cares!" He said belligerently, "So what if the 7th Medical Research Center has recovered the data. They don't own you – you're your own person. If they try to make you participate in their experiments, you can just say no."

Misaka looked up at Shinji, "But what about the rest of the sisters. They feel more… obligated?"

"They can stand up for themselves as well. You can show them. And if all of you work together, then there is nothing that those scientists can do." Shinji thought back to the last time the Misaka sisterhood had 'worked together' against the stone monster. "And if the scientists don't agree, well then, you can just blow up the Tree Diagram again!"

Misaka smiled at Shinji's statement and turned to give him a tight hug, "You are a good friend" she whispered into his chest.

"Boyfriend," Corrected Shinji without thinking

CEP**CEP

The morning of the Daihasei Festival was warm and sunny. Shinji had stopped by the Judgment Offices, after getting a text message from Uiharu.

"What's up?" He walked into the small office, to find it packed - Konori Mii, the section chief, was holding a full meeting, with Kihara, Yotsuba Yanagisako , as well as several others present.

"With the Festival today, there are going to be a lot of parents and other visitors here. I know that most of you will be off duty, attending the various events as either spectators of participants, but please keep your eyes open for any trouble makers: We have had a rash of problems this summer, and nobody wants the festival to be ruined by any unpleasantness. If you see anything, call me and I will have Anti-Skill check it out. OK?

There was a chorus of assent.

"Are there any questions?'

"Uhm, how is Shirai doing? I haven't seen her since she got hurt." Shinji asked.

"She's fine – she'll be up and about soon, but the doctor wants her to take it easy for a couple more days."

"So she's going to miss out on all the events?" asked Uiharu.

"Well, she can't participate, but the doctor let her go out, as long as she stays in a wheel chair."

"Oh, that's going to work" Muttered somebody.

"Ok," Mii clapped her hands together, "get going – you have stuff to do."

CEP**CEP

The first event that Shinji's class was scheduled to participate in was a game that was cross between a rugby scrimmage and armageddon. Each team had to get the ball into their opponents net to score a point. ESPer power use was encouraged.

'_So, I guess I have a girlfriend'_ Shinji mused. Seiri had paced him as the goalie, and he had his AT field stretched over the entire goal, as he stood next to it.. _'And she doesn't hate me.'_ To say that Shinji had been traumatized by his experience with Asuka would be an understatement..

Thwap

The ball bounced off of the AT field. An opposing player grabbed it and tried to blast a hole through the AT field by telekineticly slamming a mound of dirt into it.

"Gah!" The dirt rebounded, spraying the boy, forcing him to stagger away as he lost control of the ball to one Shinji's classmates.

'_But what if she starts asking awkward questions – like she wants to meet my family? I guess I can tell her I'm an orphan_.'

CEP**CEP

"Hurry, the match has already started!" Shirai demanded.

'_How the hell did this happen?'_ Asuka thought as she pushed Shirai's wheelchair up the ramp into the stands. She had wanted to watch the baka competing in the games (not that she was going to tell him that), but hadn't had a ticket to get in, when the crazy girl in a wheelchair teleported in front of her and offered her a ticket if she pushed her around.

Now, Asuka's sense of manners was fairly vestigial, but she knew that you should be polite to people who were in a wheelchair. So she had agreed.

'_Stupid. I have to ditch this psycho before she drives me insane'_

As she craned her neck, looking for seats, she spotted Misaka, well, -a- Misaka sitting up in the bleachers. And it was even in a handicapped accessible area.

"We're going there" she pointed and almost ran with Shirai up to the spot. She parked the girl next to the clone, and took a seat on the other side of the Misaka with a sigh.

"So, you are one of Misaka-chan's 'sisters?" Shirai asked, somewhat nervously.

"Yes, Misaka is one of the clone series, number 10031" The girl replied, watching the field. Despite having Shinji blocking the goal, his classmates still had not managed to score. Which might be because they almost never controlled the ball. They were getting pummeled. Literally, in some cases: Pierce was running away from a girl with his hands protecting his head as she pelted him with snowballs.

After watching Pierce lose control of the ball to the opposing team. Again. Misaka turned to Asuka and asked, "You know Shinji from before he came to Academy City?"

"Um, yeah." Asuka replied guardedly.

"These games are a major event in the school calendar. All parents are invited to come and see them, and to visit the schools. Why are Shinji's parents not here?"

"Uhm" Asuka wasn't certain what Shinji was telling people about Third Impact, but it couldn't be the whole truth, otherwise he would be locked up in a lab somewhere. "Why do you care? It's his business, and if he doesn't want to tell you, then deal."

"Misaka 10031 is dating Shinji, So Misaka expects a certain level open-ness and trust."

Asuka eyed the girl next to her, "That's right. You're the one I met before. Though honestly I can't see what the baka sees in you" Asuka said with a sniff, arching her back, to show the other girl what Asuka had that Misaka lacked.

"Misaka finds your attitude offensive. You are arrogant and selfish. Misaka is not certain why Shinji would date YOU! Unless maybe you were the last girl on earth"

"Why, you…" Asuka growled.

Shirai watched the by-play with round eyes, not certain who she should be supporting.

Asuka's attack was interrupted by a thick, choking smell of sewage and blood wafting down to her.

She looked up at the row of seats above her: the muck monster was occupying 2 of the seats.

"What the hell is that?"

Shirai turned around and gasped, "we have to get that thing – it's going to destroy everything!"

"Actually, it seems to be watching the game."

Shirai stood up on her wheelchair "It's going to cause trouble! It can't be here!"

The muck monster held up a pair of tickets.

"Please sit down, Misaka asks with some embarrassment, You are causing a scene" the clone had managed to pull herself together and turned back to watching the game as if nothing had happened. "Oh, that does not look so good"

"Ooh, that's going to hurt" agreed Asuka: one of Shinji's classmates had just run into him while looking in the other direction. They both went down in a tangle of limbs - apparently, Shinji had forgotten to put the AT field around himself as well as the goal.

"Why wasn't that idiot standing inside the goal, like anybody with a shred of common sense. He never thinks things through, and why wasn't he paying attention. He's such..."

"He's very sweet, interrupts Misaka calmly"

Asuka's rant crashed to a halt, "Huh."

CEP**CEP

Shinji had made sure to the get to the stadium early. This was the only match that the 2nd Ordinary Middle School was competing in that he could make. They were going to be playing capture the flag against Tokiwadai Middle School.

So far, both teams were flinging ranged attacks at each other, trying to draw the other side out. The two Misakas were dueling it out. The Railgun had to keep her powers in check so that she didn't fry anybody by accident, which let 10031 almost match her. At least enough to block her attacks.

RING

RING

"Hello?"

"Hey, Baka. I can't believe you were stupid enough not to shield yourself as well as the goal."

Shinji sighed, "Hi, Asuka."

"So, where are you now?"

"I'm at the stadium, watching the capture the flag game between 2nd Ordinary and Tokiwadai middle schools."

"Yeah, whatever. I was just reading the list of Academy City events for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, after all the Festival events are done, they are going to have a dance for all the students."

"Uhm, Asuka, I… not that I'm not… It's just that." Shinji turned beet red.

"Relax, Dumkoff, I'm not asking you out. I know you're taken. But the reason I'm calling you is WHERE they are hosting the dance: They are going to be using the parking garage of the 7th Medical Institute Laboratory. It will be the perfect opportunity to sneak into the building and look around for anything having to do with Human Instrumentality."

"Oh. That sounds like a good idea." Shinji nodded, half watching as a Tokiwadai girl casually walked past a bunch of 2nd Ordinary defenders to just as casually take the flag. The defenders didn't seem to even notice her.

The Announcer declared her to be Misaki Shokuhou

"Oh, and it's couples only. So you're going to have to come with your creepy girlfriend."

"That's..That's not a problem. How about you?"

"I have an employee pass. I can meet you at the gate."

"Ok. It's a plan"

There was a roar from the crowd as one of Misaka's bolts of lightning was deflected by her clone, zapping the telepath, Shokuhou.

CEP**CEP

"You guys did really great!" Shinji smiled at number 10031.

"We still lost, Misaka laments, showing a competitive streak Misaka did not know Misaka had."

"Uhm, yeah, but they had two level 5s on their team. But you managed to stay within 1 point for almost the whole game. That's pretty good. And you were really great in keeping the Railgun sidelined for most of the game."

Misaka 10031 smiled, "Misaka is too emotional. So Misaka riled her up, so that Misaka made mistakes." She put her arm around Shinji and snuggled into his side as the pair walked back towards their apartments, "Misa.. I am much more calm and rational than Misaka." There was a note of smugness in the usually flat tone.

The teens continued to walk like that for a bit.

"Uhm, Misaka, would you do me the honor of going to the dance with me tomorrow?" Shinji asked, nervously.

"SQUEE! Squeals Misaka ecstatically! Misaka will be very happy to go to the dance with you, Misaka replies excitedly." Misaka replied calmly.

"O-Okay." Shinji paused, _'Should I tell her about sneaking into the research building? But I can't tell her why, and it will only remind her about the Experiment, and that will make her feel bad'_ So Shinji did what he usually did when he had a problem – he kept quiet and hoped it would go away. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it had gotten him through the End of the World.

Beside, the fireworks had started. It was much too nice of an evening to ruin it by thinking about an apocalypse, past, present or future.

CEP**CEP

"So, you going to the dance?" Motoharu asked nonchalantly.

"Uhm, yeah?" Shinji replied, looking up from his box lunch.

"Dude, you got a tux, and everything?" Asked Pierce.

"And flowers. You have to give your girl flowers." Added Motoharu

"Have you arranged a limo?"

With each question, Shinji cringed a little more. "Guys, it's just a dance."

"JUST a dance? Dude, have you been paying any attention to what's been going on around you all day?" Pierce pointed to a trio of girls stalking an upper class boy, and at a pair of girls going over a foot long shopping list of cosmetics and other 'necessary' items.

"Yeah, but girls are crazy." Shinji replied.

"And you are dating one."

"Oh." Shinji stopped to ponder this. Cold fear balled up in his stomach, "I don't think Misaka is into this sort of thing." '_Misaka is a different kind of crazy'_.

"Your funeral, man."

"Uhm, are you guys going to the dance?"

"No, it's couples only, and we don't have dates." Replied Pierce.

"Well…" Motoharu added.

Pierce whirled on him, "Dude! Have you been holding out on us?"

"Erm, not exactly," Motoharu replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Maika has agreed to go with me. You know, as platonic friends. Who happen to be siblings."

"Duuude. That's so wrong." Pierce paused, and then continued, "so, you getting her flowers?"

Shinji took the opportunity to escape.

CEP**CEP

'_Do I need to get a limo? Where does one GO to get a limo?'_ Shinji was starting to panic. It had seemed like such a simple exercise – ask Misaka to the dance, then sneak around with Asuka and find out what the research institute is doing.

Simple.

But renting a tux? And a limo? The flowers should be easy enough. Maybe he could get away with just that…

Shinji stopped as he tried to remember – he was certain he had seen a store selling flowers. Maybe the grocery store?

As soon as class let out, Shinji pushed his way though the crowds towards a likely store. After fighting through the throng of like-minded teenagers, he discovered the only flowers left were potted plants. And some rather wilted lilies.

Shinji forged his way back out of the store and on to the next one.

CEP**CEP

Shinji knocked on Misaka 10031's door. He was dressed in a too-large tux, with a fistful of paper flowers in his right hand..

"Hi, I'm sorry I'm late. I wasn't able to find any flowers…" Shinji's mouth ran out of fuel, as his brain had stopped feeding it words. 'She's gorgeous'.

"Misaka is sorry to keep you waiting so long. Misaka wasn't able to borrow a dress from ANY of the sisterhood, and she had to ask nee-san. Fortunately, Toma is away on a trip, so she was willing to part with this one. Honestly, Misaka is somewhat disturbed by how obsessed Misaka is with that boy. Misaka realizes that she is babbling, and smiles cutely." She proceeded to do so. And to blush.

The clone girl was wearing a spaghetti-strapped gown, of the sort Shinji had seen Misato wearing once or twice. The dark green color was a good look for the girl. Which really wasn't a surprise, considering that it belonged to the Railgun, who looked just like her, and who's mother was wealthy and a strong believer that her daughter should be ready for the moment she outgrew her tom-boy ways.

Both teens stood in the doorway, looking embarrassed for a moment, before Shinji pulled himself together. "Uhm, I hope you don't mind if we take public transportation to the dance." He said, thrusting out the fake flowers.

Misaka's eyebrows beetled, "How else would we get there? It's too far to walk.". She took the flowers and put them into a vase on her nightstand. She took a moment to look longingly at her image intensifier goggles, "Do you think I could wear these to the dance?" She asked, holding them up.

"Ah, I don't think they would go with the dress."

Misaka gave a sigh and put them back on the table.

"I feels very … odd wearing only a dress."

Shinji nodded, not certain what to say.

CEP**CEP

The dance was huge – Academy city was dominated by various schools, and students from all the schools were invited. To hold so many teenagers, the entire 3 story parking garage at the 7th Medical Institute and been converted into a series of dance areas.

"You could get lost in here" said Shinji as the couple made their way in.

"Misaka says that the refreshments are on the second floor" Shinji's date volunteered, "Lets start up there."

"Uhm, how do you know?" Shinji asked, puzzled.

"I said 'Misaka says', not that 'I said', corrects Misaka. There are over a hundred Misakas here, so they can help find things." Explained the clone.

"Um, ok." _It's nice that she is making an effort to speak in the first person. But when she slips up and goes back to using the third person, it makes it that much more confusing'_ But Shinji thought it was very sweet that Misaka 10031 was willing to go to so much effort for him. "But how did they get in? I thought this was couples only?"

"Misaka came with Misaka. The couples don't have to be romantic couples."

Shinji tried to imagine how that would have looked to the greeters at the front entrance. _"I wish I could have seen that'_

"Oh, ok. Lets go get something to drink" Looking around, Shinji noticed that there were a bunch of teens going stag_. 'I guess the rules weren't that strictly enforced eithe_r' "Oh, hey – there's Motoharu" Shinji waived to his friend, who was also dressed in a slightly rumpled suit. But somehow, it looked natural on him. He was accompanied by a short girl in a formal kimono.

"Hey, it's a zoo in here" Exclaimed the blond rogue. "This is Maika, my stepsister" He introduced the girl he was with. "We're not related."

Shinji was reminded of the whole awkwardness with Rei. '_Is he implying… no. that would be inappropriate, even if they aren't related.' _Shinji pretended to not notice that the two were holding hands.

"Oh, you are Maika's nii-san. She has spoken of you." Misaka said.

"Oh? How do you know each other?"

"Maika works as a maid at nee-san's school, so we met when I was visiting."

"Yup. Though I was wondering, how many sisters DO you have?" Maika asked, as another clone walked past them.

"Uh, we were on our way upstairs to get something to drink. You want to come with us?" Asked Shinji quickly.

"And then we can go up to the third floor – that's where all the good music is, none of this J-Pop" added Motoharu just as quickly.

The third floor was a little less crowded, and most of the students up there were upper classmen. But the music was more to their liking – at least Maika and Motoharu's . Shinji would have preferred something a little more classical.

The group of teens spent a while chatting about school and gossiping about their classmates. Especially Toma, given his propensity for getting into trouble. Misaka added tidbits about the Sisterhood's plans on getting the afore mentioned Imagine Breaker out on a date.

Finally Maika asked "but why doesn't one of them just ASK him out?"

At which Misaka started giggling. "I don't know – I have asked them the same question. But Misaka just gets flustered and rambles on about it being inappropriate for a girl to ask a boy out."

"So, what are you going to do about the whole situation?"

Misaka 10031 and Shinji both whipped out score cards. "Betting pool. 100 yen per bet. " Shinji explained.

"How many of them are there?" Maika repeated.

Shinji sweat dropped as he realized what he had done. He turned to Misaka 10031, "Um, let's go dance for a bit."

It was a fast dance, and so it wasn't too awkward.

After a few minutes, both teens had become more comfortable with dancing together. But then the music switched to a slow song. Shinji glanced down at his watch '_Shoot. I have to meet up with Asuka'_ "Uhm, I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a bit" and he took off.

CEP**CEP

Shinji made his way out to the bottom of the garage, towards the employee entrance. He didn't notice the Misaka entering the stairwell on the second floor, nor did he notice the one he brushed by on his way across the first floor.

Asuka held open the door for him as he arrived, and they quickly moved inside.

"Damn, but in that rumpled suite, you look like a teenaged Kaji."

"Uhm, I'll take that as a compliment" Shinji smiled at Asuka as they made their way through the underground tunnel connecting the garage building to the main research building.

Asuka blushed slightly, "Come on, baka. The lab I want to check out is this way."

CEP**CEP

Misaka 13240 stood in concentration, as she hacked into the security cameras. As a level 2, her range was pretty limited, but it was enough to reach down to the underground tunnel. A smile formed on her lips.

CEP**CEP

"This is it here." Asuka whispered. "The researcher whose notes I saw works in here. Can you get the door open?"

"How? You want me to smash the door down with my AT field?" Shinji asked skeptically."

"No, Baka. Reach in with your AT field and pick the lock."

"How do I do that?" Asked Shinji, his voice rising in alarm.

"Shh!" Asuka hissed, "Make your AT field small and press on the tumblers."

"I'll try – I'm not very good at manipulating my AT field."

He crouched down and concentrated. The door rattled, but nothing happened.

"Dumkoff! Haven't you experimented at all? Don't tell me you got this super power and you haven't used it at all!" Asuka exploded. "Try again, and do it right!"

Shinji tried again.

"Baka. This is absurd. Just get it in there" Asuak hissed, before muttering, "It's just like when we had sex." Asuka did not deal well with stress.

It took a good fifteen minutes of fiddling around for Shinji to get the door open.

Asuka gave a sigh of relief. "Ok, lets go see what we can find."

CEP**CEP

Misaka 10031's was starting to get worried. Shinji still hadn't returned.

"Where's Shinji?" Maika asked as she and Motoharu came off of the dance floor.

"Misaka does not know. Misaka has not seen him since…" Misaka's paused, as she received a communication from one of the other clones. Her eyes got really big, and she took off running for the stairs.

Motoharu and Maika exchanged a glance and ran after her.

CEP**CEP

The lab was filled by a bank of rack mounted computers. Shinji flipped through a logbook that was wedged in next to them. His eyes beetled – it was full of names. "Hey, I know some of these people - Suzaku Kurasawa was the Level Upper who almost burnt down the Matsuya department store!"

The two teens rifled through the notebook, but there was nothing else in there, just the names and internet node numbers.

"Well, write those numbers down – we can look them up later" Asuka directed, as she carefully put the logbook back where it had come from.

Asuka was rifling through some papers when Shinji asked, "Where does this go?" He was pointing at a small elevator partially hidden by a coat rack.

Asuka came over, looking puzzled. "I have no idea - this part of the building is only one story tall." She reached out and pressed the button.

A moment later, the elevator opened. The two teens glanced at each other and stepped in. There were three buttons – '1', 'B' and 'Terminal Dogma'

"Oh, shit" whispered Shinji as Asuka pressed 'Terminal Dogma'

The elevator went down for what seemed like forever before opening up into a long white corridor.

Sitting next to the elevator were a pair of guards

"Hey, what are you kids doing here?" the guards stood up, one of them reaching for his rifle.

Asuka stuck out her chest and batted her eyelashes "We just got turned around – we were.." was as far as she got before an orange field slammed hard into the guards, knocking them both unconscious.

Asuka glanced at Shinji, surprised.

"I hate soldiers" he hissed, anger barely restrained.

Asuka sighed, "let's go see what's down here while we can."

The two teens raced down the corridor. As they approached the far end, the door opened, and Rei Ayanami stepped out.

CEP**CEP

Misaka 10031 was standing at an intersection of corridors in the research building. She had gotten inside easily, forcing the lock with her electrokinesis. But now she was lost – there was no sign of Shinji or that …. Asuka.

"What are you doing?" Motoharu ran up, followed by Maika.

"If you get caught in here, you'll be in big trouble for trespassing" added Maika.

"So it had better be worth it" finished Motoharu.

"Misaka received a message from Misaka, stating that Shinji had run off of with that… Asuka. And Misaka was very catty about it, calling Shinji a good for nothing two timer" Misaka replied calmly, but here eyes kept glancing back and forth, as if hoping to spot some trace of Shinji.

"Who's Asuka?" asked Maika.

"Shinji's ex." Misaka ground out.

"Oooh."

"That's bad"

"We'll help find them" stated Maika.

"There's probably an innocent explanation." Motoharu added, "Why would Shinji sneak off to be with his ex by breaking into a research building?"

"The computer says that they went this way" Maika pointed down one corridor, "And we should hurry – they triggered some sort of alarm."

Misaka looked at the other girl in surprise.

"How do you know that? Misaka wasn't able to access the computer's database with Misaka's electrokinesis – it's too well shielded."

"Maika is a level 4 cyber telepath. She can talk to machines." Motoharu stated as the teens started in the direction Maika had pointed

Maika nodded, "You just have to ask politely. So few people are polite to machines. If you ask them nicely, they will often do favors for you. Like shut down the air conditioning in your building."

The teens were just approaching the door to the laboratory when a group of soldiers rounded a corner, yelling "halt!"


	7. Chapter 7

just a quick note: after this chapter, there will be 1-2 mini chapters to tie up loose ends

Chapter 7

"Hey, Rei. How's it going?" Asuka smiled nonchalantly.

Rei's eyes narrowed, and an orange shimmer appeared in the air.

"Um, Hi, Rei. What are you doing here?" Shinji asked as he quickly stepped in front of Asuka.

"The question is, what are _You- doing here, Ikari? You are trespassing on private property." Rei asked coldly.

'_Geeze, I forgot how … aloof Rei is. She makes Misaka seem warm and cuddly.'_ Shinji paused to consider the idea of 'Misaka' and 'cuddly'. _'Oh, shit! I ran out on Misaka! She's going to kill me.'_

"First Child, we are here because they are doing research on Human Instrumentality here. Do you want to go through that again?" Asuka demanded while Shinji's brain rebooted.

"And do you want to continue on like this?" Rei swept an arm, to encompass all of them. "All alone, forever separated from other intelligences?"

"You don't have to be separated. That's what having a girlfriend or a boyfriend is about. Having somebody you are close to."

"And you share everything with your partner?" Asked Rei.

Shinji opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, confusion evident in his face.

"He shares more than you do." Asuka defended Shinji, "The reason you are all alone is because of the way you act. If you reached out to others, you might find somebody who loves you" _'on a cold day in hell.'_ Asuka wisely kept that last part to herself.

Rei paused, before replying, "The security alarm has been triggered. You should leave before the guards arrive" She stood calmly, blocking the door as orange sparkled around her.

Asuka and Shinji exchanged glances.

"Thank you for the warning," Shinji smiled at Rei, still trying to make some sort of social connection. Asuka grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the elevator.

They were half way there when a sparkle of orange gave Shinji a fraction of a second warning to flare his AT field. The impact was still strong enough to throw the both of them to the floor.

" I have considered what you have said, " stated Rei as she walked calmly towards the two teens, her AT field pressing down on them. "And I have decided to reach out to Shinji."

"I don't think that will work if I get arrested." Shinji squeaked.

"I will have you declared a research project, and you will stay with me in the laboratory." Rei replied. Then, after a moment of thought, she added "The Second Child will have to be terminated."

"Thanks a lot, First Child." Asuka growled, as she tried to stand up.

Shinji pushed back with his AT field. Rei was stronger, but he was able to loosen her pressure on them enough to grab Asuka and stagger towards the elevator.

He kept up the pressure until they were safely in the elevator.

"Whoo." Asuka breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator started upwards. "That was close."

"She let us go" Shinji replied. "She could have smashed the elevator."

"Not if she wants you as her mate" replied Asuka with a shiver.

"Do you have to be vulgar all the time?" Shinji rounded on Asuka. Just as the elevator reached the ground floor, their conversation was interrupted by automatic weapon fire.

"OH SHIT!"

Shinji flared his AT field again as the elevator door opened. There was nobody in the lab.

Gunfire sounded again – it was outside in the hallway.

"Is there another way out of here?" Shinji whispered.

"This way" Asuka pulled him towards the back of the lab, "There's a service corridor connecting a bunch of labs in this section. I think we can get to it this way."

The teens rushed as quietly as they could to the door that Asuka had indicated. Shinji pushed out his AT field as Asuka quietly opened the door.

Thankfully, the short corridor was empty of soldiers, though it was apparently being used as a storage space.

"So now where?"

There were four other doors off of the short corridor. Asuka took a moment to orient herself and then tried the furthest one on the left.

"It's locked"

Just then, there was a burst of gunfire somewhere behind them. Shinji started and smashed the door open.

"Good going, moron." Asuka raced through the lab, going for the exit at the far side.

When they burst out into a main corridor, they heard footsteps running their way.

"This way! Come on!" Asuka pulled Shinji along in the opposite direction.

The two teens raced through the corridors, dodging groups of soldiers that had appeared like ants out of a flooded ant hive. But with Asuka's knowledge of the layout of the building, they managed to weave their way back to the dance without being spotted.

"Thank god!" Asuka exhaled as she leaned against the wall of the garage. A few other teens glanced at them, but the dance was in full swing, so most of the teens were preoccupied with their own friends.

"I have to go find Misaka." Shinji pushed off of the wall and turned towards the stairs.

"What did you tell when you left?" Asuka asked in curiosity.

"Uhm, that I was going to the bathroom?" Shinji's answer sounded more like a question.

Asuka's eyes bugged out "Mein Gott! You're an idiot!" She pushed off the wall and headed for the exit, "she's going to be pissed you know. She's going to tear you a new one. Good luck" she waved nonchalantly as she headed away from ground zero – aka Shinji Ikari.

'_I must not run away. I must not run away'_ Shinji headed up for the third floor.

He had just made it to the stairs when Misaka found him.

A half dozen Misakas.

And they all looked very upset, which is saying something, given their usual lack of expression.

Before Shinji could think of anything one Misaka stated: "You have endangered Misaka."

"And you were two timing Misaka" added a second from his right

"Which is not unexpected. Misaka told Misaka that you were nothing but trouble." Scolded a third from behind him.

Shinji's whirled back in forth in a panic, as he looked for a way out. He was surrounded on all sides by Misaka. He felt like deer in the middle of a wolf pack "Where is she? What happened to 10031?"

"Misaka followed you into the tunnel when you eloped with that _other_ girl, Misaka states waspishly. Misaka ran into trouble with guards in the research institute, and is now being held prisoner. Misaka does not know what Misaka's fate will be."

"Do you.. do you know where she is being held?" Shinji stammered.

The sisters nodded as one

"Oh, ok. Please lead the way."

"You plan to rescue Misaka all by yourself? Asks Misaka incredulously"

"Misaka is in danger. At least the two timer is willing to try to rescue Misaka, argues Misaka reasonably."

"But what if the two timer gets injured? Misaka thinks he is cute, and Misaka will be upset if he gets himself killed"

The other Misakas's turned to look suspiciously at the speaker

"That is Misaka's opinion, not Misaka's!" she defended herself

Shinji stood by in a colds sweat. "Shut up! Stop arguing and tell me where she is!"

The Misakas paused, before one of them nodded, "Misaka will lead you." One of the girls turned and ran to the door back to the research building. She held her hand next to the electronic lock for a moment, burning out the lock mechanism.

The two teens took off, running down the corridor at top speed. They had just reached the first cross corridor when a guard stepped out, yelling "halt!", but Shinji's AT field just ploughed right through him, knocking him into a wall and down to the ground.

"Misaka thinks Misaka is this way"

"You're not certain?" Shinji asked.

"Misaka's messages are coming in somewhat garbled. And there are no good landmarks. All the corridors are white, and there are no windows."

"Aarg!" Shinji sighed in exasperation before following this clone's directions.

CEP**CEP

Shinji and the clone were racing down another endless corridor when they heard automatic gunfire.

"It's coming from this way!"

They raced towards the noise. _'What am I doing? Running TOWARDS gunfire? Am I crazy'_ As they rounded a corner, they were faced with an elevator that had been forced open – the doors were warped and jammed open.

The noise of the fighting was coming from below. The elevator car was somewhere down below them.

"Oh, this is not good" Shinji look down. "Let's go – I'll use my AT field to slow our fall"

'Rei did it, back when I was fighting Tabris. It can't be that hard'

He stepped out into the elevator shaft and reached out for the walls with his AT field. The pressure against the shaft kept him from falling.

"Aaagh!" unfortunately, Shinji hadn't gotten the orientation quite right, and was hanging mostly horizontal, face down. Before he had a chance to reposition himself, Misaka daintily stepped onto his rear end.

"Down, please"

Shinji lowered them down to lowest level. It was a long trip before they landed on top of the elevator car.

'_This is down in the Terminal Dogma level'_ Shinji thought as the two teens explored the top of the elevator car

"How are we going to get off?" asked the Misaka clone. She reached out and touched the elevator car, a nimbus of electricity encircling her.

The car jerked upwards "Aah! Don't do that" Shinji yelped. He reached out and wedged his AT field between the car and the elevator doors leading out to the level below, and _twisted_. The car crumpled, knocking the two teens off their feet.

"And that was better? Asks Misaka sarcastically."

"Um, I think we can get down through that" Shinji pointed to the gap that he had created between the elevator car and the wall. The elevator doors had also been pushed open by the force of the AT field. He stepped up to the gap and slid down, using his AT field like a slide..

Only to come face to face with a pair of guards. "Hold it right there! You are under arrest!" They were pointing rifles right at his face from point blank range

Shinji's eyes got really big and he raised his hands" What.. What's going on here?" Shinji's mind went blank at the sight of the gun barrels pointed at him.

"That's none of your business. Now lie down and put your hands on your head."

Which is the point where Misaka dropped down behind Shinji. As the soldiers whipped their guns to point at her, she collapsed with a pained groan.

"You monsters! What did you do to her?" Shinji smashed both soldiers into the wall.

"Misaka landed badly and sprained Misaka's ankle" came the reply from behind him.

"Oh." Shinji let the guards collapse onto the floor. His AT Field had hit them hard enough to knock them unconscious. "Um, I guess you should stay here – I'll be back soon."

He ran off

CEP**CEP

As Shinji ran towards the sound of gunfire (again), the temperature dropped towards arctic. '_The AC has gone haywire. That's probably Misaka's handiwork._' Also, several sprinklers were going, spraying water.

"Eeep" Shinji wasn't paying attention, and he took a corner too fast, skidding on a puddle of water. He ended up lying on his back next to a pair of security guards in military fatigues.

He got a good look at them, as everybody stayed frozen in shock for a moment.

SNAP

Electricity coursed through the water on the floor, zapping the guards into unconsciousness.

'_I'm still alive'_ Shinji realized "Oh, Misaka? Is that you?" He struggled to get up. He was half way there when he was faced with his putative girlfriend. His extremely angry (possibly former) girlfriend _'oh, man this may have been the shortest relationship ever'_

"Oh. Hi, Misaka." He replied, looking up at the clone who was glowering at him. He finished standing up. It didn't help. "I can explain"

There was a shout from somewhere.

"Explanations can wait," Interrupted Motoharu, "We need to get out of here or we are toast."

'_What's he doing here? Well, like he said – explanations later'_ "This way!" Shinji led the way back to the elevator where hew had left Misaka, well, _a__ Misaka..

When they arrived, the injured clone had gotten herself back up her feet, and was using a rifle as a crutch. At 10031's disapproving glare, she held up the ejected magazine.

"Ok, you guys, I can give you a boost up the elevator shaft with my AT field" Shinji panted, badly out of breath '_Maybe Touji was right – I should play some sort of sport'_

"Misaka will go first, to make sure that there are no guards up above" replied 10031. This was the first time she had said anything to Shinji. Shinji cringed at her tone of voice. "Then Misaka will follow with Motoharu and Maika"

"Ok. I think I can lift that many at once. Just hold on to each other so that you don't slip off of the AT field." Shinji agreed.

Shinji lifted 10031 up the elevator shaft. It was tricky balancing her, and Shinji was scared about what she would find when she reached the top.

Finally, the injured Misaka turned to the others, "Misaka says that it is all clear"

"You mean up there?" Shinji asked, pointing up the elevator shaft.

The clone rolled her eyes. "Yes, up there.. I am disappointed that Misaka was dating somebody as slow as you"

"Um, ok" Shinji was a past master at ignoring insults, "Hold on tight, I'll lift the lot of you up."

Slowly Shinji expanded his AT field, pushing the trio of teens. It was even more difficult with three people – they kept trying to slip off to the edge of the elevator shaft, where they could get jammed into something.

He had them most of the way up when a guard rounded the corner "Put your hands up!"

Shinji didn't know what to do: supporting his friends was taking all his concentration – he couldn't bring up an AT field between him and the guard. He slowly raised his hands.

The guard held his rifle trained on Shinji, not taking any chances, not with so many ESPers running around Academy City. "Lie down on the floor and put your hands on your head"

Shinji looked around. He was starting to panic. He could feel his control of his AT field starting to slip. Any moment and he would lose it.

"NOW!" Yelled the guard, "ON THE FLOOR!"

Which is the point where the Muck Monster came out of the airshaft and swallowed his head.

"blurgg!" yelled the guard, clawing at his face. He dropped his rifle and clawed at the stinking slime that was threatening to suffocate him.

Shinji quickly finished raising the three teens and pushed himself into the elevator shaft after them.

CEP**CEP

"Are you ok?" Misaka asked as she pulled him onto the level floor.

"Yeah, I'm fine," gasped Shinji, his heart hammering like an entire percussion section.

"Misaka heard gun shots, and I knew something had gone wrong because the others were stuck, and you are bleeding!" Misaka 10031 babbled.

"It doesn't look very deep. Please, can we get out of here?" Maika pleaded.

The teens took off at a run

"Through here!" Motoharu pointed towards a corridor.

"I don't think that's the way we came"

"Doesn't matter!" Motoharu grabbed a chair from an adjoining conference room and smashed open a window leading to a parking lot, "We can't go back to the dance anyways. Out!"

The five teens slipped out into the dark parking lot. Most of the guards must have been still distracted inside the building – for the group made it to the perimeter fence without a hitch, and Shinji easily uprooted a section of that for their escape.

CEP**CEP

"Ok, Shinji, you have some explaining to do." The five teens were all at Motoharu's apartment. Maika had managed to cadge a ride for the injured Misaka clone on top of a cleaning robot.

"Well, it's complicated." Shinji began.

"Shinji, I am your girlfriend," interrupted Misaka 10031, "I think I deserve to know what you were doing. Down there. With that girl." Her voice became more abrupt and tense as she spoke. The other teens wisely stayed quiet and let her do the talking. Maika checked in with the computer network, to see if there was any official word on their escapades. Motoharu peered out the window, to give the two some privacy.

"I don't think you will believe me" whined Shinji.

Misaka 10031 took a deep breath and organized her roiling thoughts, before speaking, "If you don't trust me, then we are through."

The other Misaka jerked her head up and down forcefully in agreement.

"Excuse me" Misaka 10031 turned to her sister, "If you don't mind? Misaka would like some privacy, please." She glared at the other girl.

The other Misaka just looked nonchalantly back at her.

Misaka glared some more.

The other Misaka gave a long suffering sigh and rolled her eyes before going to join Motoharu in looking out the window.

Misaka 10031 returned to where Shinji was sitting on the edge of Motoharu's bed, "Shinji, Misaka, I mean *I* care for you. But boyfriend-girlfriends tell each other thing about themselves. About what is important to them. I don't know almost anything about you or your past. I… it can't work like this."

Shinji sighed, "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry" Shinji sat there for a moment, debating his options. _'If I don't trust somebody, then it will be like Rei said – I'll be all alone. And… and these guys risked their lives to help Misaka. They won't turn on me'_

"Ok, I tell you. But it's the craziest thing you will ever here, so don't blame me if you don't believe me."

The other teens quickly stopped pretending that they weren't listening in and crowded around Shinji.

"This world is a fake. The real world ended a year ago."

"What, your saying we're living in some sort of computer simulation, like in that movie, _The Matrix_?" Motoharu interrupted.

"No, The world ended. There was an apocalypse like thing. Really bad things happened, but then, the world restarted again. Most people ceased to exist during that… We called it Third Impact. They lost all sense of self and became part of this group consciousness. As far as I know, Asuka and I were the only people to survive as individuals. And then.. and then, somehow, the world restarted" _'Because I refused Human Instumantality. But I can't say that - I'll sound even crazier than I do now' _"When people came back, they had no memory of .. of anything that hadhappened between Second and Third Impact."

"What did happen?" Asked Motoharu

"I'd rather not talk about it. Bad things happened" '_Especially to me. And Asuka'_ "but the important thing is that all of it, Second Impact, Third Impact, was man made. Some crazy people did it, as part of what they called 'the Human Instumentality Project' It was supposed to make them Gods. Only my father, who was part of their cabal, sabotaged it. And instead made the world end."

"Does that make him a hero or a villain?" Asked Maika philosophically.

"So what does this have to do with what you were doing with that Asuka? Asks Misaka with honest curiosity, tinged slightly with anger" asked the other clone

"Uhm, Asuka has gotten a job at the 7th Medical Research Center, and when she was moving into her lab, she saw notes that talked about the Human Instrumentality project. She was scared that somebody was trying to do it again. Se we snuck it to check it out.

"Is that all?" asked the Misaka clone, obviously put out that there was no juicy gossip to be had.

"Yeah. That's all. In retrospect, it sounds kind of stupid."

"Why didn't you tell me what was going on? I would have helped?" asked Misaka 10031

"I.. I didn't want to worry you. You have enough going on with the whole Tree Diagram thing.." Shinji's voice trailed off.

Misaka 10031 gave an exasperated sigh before leaning over and giving Shinji a quick hug. "So, what do we do now?"

"If they are trying for Human Instrumantality," replied Motoharu, "we need to shut it down"

"Who is we? Asks Misaka, as Misaka is concerned that the more people who learn of this, the greater the chance that somebody else will try it again in the future." Asked the clone

Misaka 100031 nodded in agreement. Having unwanted 'experiments' re-started was an ongoing fear for her and the sisterhood.

Shinji sighed despondently

"It's going to have to be just us" Motoharu replied

"And Asuka" added the Misaka clone, "She can be trusted?"

"Yeah. Who else can we trust?" asked Motoharu.

"The Muck monster." Replied Shinji.

"The muck monster? Is it even real? Asked Maika.

"Yeah, it is. I think it's made from some of the people who didn't 'return' after Third Impact" replied Shinji '_Like maybe Misato?'_, He then continued out loud, "it saved my life down in the research facility"

"Oh, ok." Motoharu replied, bemused at the same time as 10031 interjected, "You did not say that you almost died, Misaka interrupts in agitation. That seems like an important fact that you left out, Misaka adds in an upset tone" she leaned in towards Shinji with a worried expression.

"Uhm, once the two of you settle this, can you get in contact with Asuka?" Motoharu interrupted, embarrassedly, "We can meet to plan strategy tomorrow morning.

"And the muck monster, if you can find it." Added Misaka 10031 with a sigh, remembering the stench of the thing.

"I will bring some room fresheners, just in case" volunteered Maika.

CEP**CEP

"Somebody broke into the Human Instrumentality lab", roared the voice from monolith 01. "Why are there no video recordings of who did this?"

"Uhm, we only have cameras in Terminal Dogma, and somebody deleted 5 minutes of recordings." Started monolith 04

"We need to expedite the Human Instumentality" interrupted 02 loudly.

"But the Adam is not ready" argued monolith 03, "We should increase security instead"

"It's aging can be accelerated artificially by feeding it extra power. If we increase security, we risk a discovery" shouted 02

"Artificially? The whole thing is artificial" grumble 04.

"If we do that, we risk losing the embryo." Replied 03.

"According to my calculations, If we feed the full output of the research reactor to Adam, It will be viable for Human Instumantailty in 2 days. Necrosis will not begin for at least 3 days. We have a 24 hour window"

"Very good." Monolith 01 chuckled happily to itself "We will commence human Instrumentality in 2 days time"

CEP**CEP

"Ok, so how do we go about putting a stop to this?" asked Asuka. It was the following day, and the group of teens were meeting in Motoharu's apartment again, but with the addition of Asuka, and she had taken over leading the discussion.

The muck monster was not in attendance, but the rest of the teens from last night were there.

"I don't know – we don't even know who's behind it!" Shinji replied. "We can't have another Third Impact. I don't think I could deal with it" Shinji was starting to hyperventilate.

Misaka 10031 reached out and put an arm around his back. That calmed him down. Until he caught sight of Asuka out of the corner of his eye, glaring at him. Shinji started hyperventilating again.

"Baka, we don't need to stop the people. We just have to make it impossible for them to carry through with Human Instrumentality. Seriously, can't anybody here use their brain?" Asuka sighed in exasperation, "So what do this mysterious group of crazies need to destroy the world?"

"They need Lillith and Adam" Shinji replied, focusing on the problem at hand.

"Uh-huh. And I bet they are going to use Rei as a stand in for Lilith." Asuka replied, a teacher pleased that her slow student got a question right. "But they also need a massive amount of computational power to control the Impact. Otherwise, the mysterious cabal gets toasted along with everybody else, and I bet they don't want that."

"That must be where the new Level Upper comes in" chirped Maika, "the users are part of a distributed computing node."

"Exactly!" continued Asuka.

"So we go in and mess with those computers that you and Shinji found?" Asked Motoharu.

"Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if that is all the servers. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had a backup server array somewhere.""

"What about Adam?" asked Maika, "do you know where he is?"

"Could they use Kawaru?" quailed Shinji?

"I doubt it – he was long dead by the time Third Impact happened. They need something that was still alive when we all went to goo."

Shinji nodded, "Then they need Evangelion 01. That would take an awful lot of power. Unless they got the S2 engine"

"If they had a working Evangelion, where would they hide it? It's the size of a small skyscraper." Asuka pointed out. "My guess is they have a part of Evangelion 01"

"Maybe they have it somewhere out in the pacific somewhere? Asks Misaka as she realizes the other teens present are making too many assumptions " asked the Misaka clone, who had been sitting quietly on some sort of crate up until then.

"But Rei is here, as is the Level Upper network. I think they are getting ready to start, so they must have Adam somewhere in Academy City

"So they have a part of a 250 foot tall Evangelion somewhere hidden in the city" Shinji clarified.

"And they must be keeping it on life support," added Motoharu, "so if we pull the plug, it goes by-by"

Asuka's eyes lit up, "But they know that. And they can't let their chance at godhood go up in smoke due to an accident."

"So?" asked Misaka 10031 at the same time as Shinji. They glanced at each other and blushed.

Asuka rolled her eyes.

"It means they need to have their own power source. Something reliable, something that can put out a huge amount of power for both Adam and the server farm." Asuka looked at the blank looks the other teens were giving her. She just opened her mouth to explain to the collected idiots the obvious point, when Maika interrupted her

"The 7th Medical Research Facility has it's own fusion reactor, doesn't it?"

"YES" Asuka beamed. One of her students was going to get a passing grade.

Motoharu turned to his stepsister, "Can you ask the computers running the power grid to turn off the power to that part of the city.

"Mmm." She nodded, " I get along pretty well with the power grid computer. And last time she had to shut down the network because of the damage from Misaka (the Railgun), she got all sorts of cool upgrades. So I should be able to talk her into another shut down with no problem." Maika paused before whispering conspiratorially, "she really like bling."

"She? Asks Misaka in puzzlement. the computer has a gender?"

"Well, no," replied Maika, "But the way she talks about step down transformers is exactly the same the way some girls talk about shoes."

"So that just leaves us to get into the research building and disconnect the reactor." Added Shinji, steering the conversation back on-topic.

"We will need some equipment" Motoharu said thoughtfully. At which point the Misaka clone stood up and pulled the top off of the crate she had been sitting on, revealing a tray of assault rifles.

"Uhm, I meant more like breaking and entering tools" Motoharu clarified. But he found he was talking to people's backs, as both Misaka 10031 and Asuka had darted over to the weapons, and were making cooing noises.

CEP**CEP

The group of black clad teens crept along the outside of the chain link fence.

"I feel stupid. Is this really necessary?" asked Maika

"Shh!" hissed Asuka.

"I already asked the security computer not to sound the alarm until after we leave."

"Shh!" repeated Asuka, "Has it occurred to you that there may be human guards?" she whispered.

"Oh"

"This is it" Motoharu pointed to a door an electronic lock, Maika, can you open it?"

The short girl squinted at the device for a moment, "No, it's too bull headed! All it cares about are its silly rules! 'You must slide the card before opening'!" she humphed, annoyed at being rejected.

The Misaka clone sighed and stepped forward, placing her hand on the locking mechanism. There was an electric crackling sound, and a moment later the lock popped open

"Hah, I bet you wished you had listened to me now, don't you!" Maika glared at the slightly smoking lock and stuck out her tongue.

"Are you certain that you need to get into the facility?" Motoharu asked in a worried tone.

"Mm" Maika nodded, "The power grid doesn't see the city the same way we do. It doesn't think in terms of maps or GPS coordinates. It thinks in terms of circuits and transformers. If I want to tell it to shut the power down to this facility, I would have to tell it exactly which ones to power down. That would take me, like, forever to figure out. It's a lot easier if I just tell it to shut down the power where I am at – it can back trace the circuit for itself."

Motoharu's eyes glazed over "Uhm, right" He turned to the Misaka clone, "So we will go with the original plan – you stand guard over Maika and make sure she's safe?

"Yes, agrees Misaka. Misaka wouldn't want anything to happen to your significant other."

Both Motoharu and Maika blushed, before the short girl pointed at a truck parked at the loading dock, "I think if we hide behind that truck, I'll be close enough."

"Ok, let's go" The two girls darted over to the truck and out of view.

"Ok, our turn" the four remaining teens ran to a side entrance. As soon as the got there, Asuka swiped her card and pushed the door open.

"Why didn't you do that with the gate?" asked Misaka 10031.

"My card doesn't work on it. Now shut up!." Asuka raised her assault rifle and advanced in a slow crouch.

Misaka muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "I can see why Shinji dumped you" She pressed her back to the wall and waited for the other teens to move ahead, as she scanned the corridor behind them.

It was Sunday evening, so the building appeared to be mostly empty, and the corridor lights were set on low, with only every 3rd light fixture turned on. The cold, institutional white hallways looked somewhat menacing in the gloom.

The teens went slowly single file towards the stairs down to the underground reactor room. Once the others had gotten far enough ahead, Misaka 10031 hefted her rifle and brought up the rear, continuously scanning for any unexpected hazards

The foursome had just reached the stairs when the lights flickered. Asuka held up her hand for everybody to hold. When nothing more happened, she waived for the others to join her.

"That was the electricity switching from the city grid to local power" confirmed Misaka once they were all together.

"Good." Asuka nodded, "I have never been down to the lower level, at least not as an employee, but if this stair is like the elevator Shinji and I went down in, there are going to be guards at the bottom."

"In that case, I'll take point" Whispered Shinji, bringing up a shimmering field of orange octagons.

The teens went down the stairs as quietly as they could. The stairs felt endless. When they got to the bottom, Shinji took a deep breath and quickly pulled the door open

"Who's there?"

"Stop!"

Came yells from in front of them – a pair of security guards were pointing rifles at them.

SNAP!

BLAM! A rifle went off as the guards dropped to the floor

From her position still in the stairwell, Misaka 10031 had thrown a bolt of lightning at the two guards stunning them. Motoharu pushed past the others with a roar and smashed into the guards before they could recover, beating one back down to the floor.

The other guard staggered up, only to be met by Asuka's foot, straight to his face. "And they're down."

"That was cool" said Misaka, bemusedly examining her hand, "I never threw a lightning bolt before."

"Come on, before more guards show up!" Shinji beckoned them onwards nervously.

"I think it's this way. I have never been down on this level" Asuka started down a corridor.

After the teens had gone a few yards down the corridor, Misaka 10031 stopped "Misaka can feel the electricity pressing in from over there" She pointed down the cross corridor. Misaka's tone was calm, but her nervousness was evident in her dropping back into her old speech pattern.

"Ok, " Shinji took the lead. They continued down the dimly lit corridor for what seemed like ages, but couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes when they saw double doors with some sort of warning signs on them up ahead.

"I think" started Shinji began, turning to speak to the teens behind him

"HALT"

Shinji's head whipped back to the front

BLAM

BLAM

There was the sound of gun fire

But there was nobody in front of them

"Aarg!" Somebody yelled in pain.

Shinji's head whipped back and forth as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Motoharu fell down, bleeding

"They're behind us!" yelled Asuka as she pressed against the wall of the corridor and returned fire.

Shinji put an AT field between them and the security guard at the far end of the tunnel

Two more security guards joined the first, firing down the corridor at the teens.

"I'll keep them busy. Misaka, open the door" Asuka yelled as she fired another burst down the corridor. Shinji knelt by Motoharu.

The spikey haired teen was holding his side, where blood was seeping through his finger "Ow, that hurts. I'm ok, but I have to sit down for a bit"

"Are you certain? Asked Shinji

"Yeah, I'm a regenerator, remember? I'll be better in a little while" His breathing became more even as he spoke, but he still looked pale.

Creak.

The door opened.

"Uhm, Hello, Rei?"" Misaka asked in a small voice.

Shinjiu barely got his AT field up in the other direction before a powerful blow slammed into the teens, knocking them to the floor. Shinji concentrated, trying not to drop either AT field.

Rei stood in the open doorway that they had been trying to get in through, glaring at the teens as her AT field crushed down on them

The guards took the opportunity to dart part way up the corridor, and into a doorway before firing again.

Misaka threw herself against one side of the corridor and she pointed her hands at the wall opposite her. The other teens felt an odd tug, and the far wall buckled and ripped, revealing a gap into some sort of laboratory. "That will teach them not coat their corridors in a ferrous alloy, crows Misaka!" she then jumped through the corridor.

Asuka bent down and scooped up Motoharu, who staggered up with a groan, and followed the electromancer. Shinji brought up the rear, sealing the hole with orange hexagons.

Asuka ran across the length of the lab to a door on the side. This door was also labeled with 'Caution: Radiation' signs. She stopped in front of it and sprayed the door with her assault rifle.

"Uhm, Asuka, maybe you should have tried the door knob first?" asked Shinji

Asuka stepped forward and tried the door knob.

The door swung open part way, before it hit the body of the guard that Asuka had managed to shoot through the door.

She turned to the rest of the teens with a viscous smile at being vindicated.

Misaka look at the body in horror. "You killed him."

"You know," coughed Motoharu, "I'm surprised you survived breaking up with your ex."

"Force field, remember?" replied Shinji.

They had just made it into the reactor room when a field of orange hexagons blocked their way. Rei walked into the room and stared at them. "I do not understand what you wish to accomplish, but it is irrelevant."

The room was huge – at least 40 feet high, and the size of a football field. In the center was a vaguely spherical device, with huge cables coming off of it. The teens were standing on a balcony, overlooking it.

On the ground floor of the room, amidst a clutter of workstations, power conduits and who knows what else, there stood a cluster of old men around a glass tube in which floated what looked like fetus the size of small car. It was to this apparatus that most of the cables were attached to.

"Human instrumentality begins in 10 minutes" said Rei as she stepped up onto the railing around the balcony. "Shinji, come, join me" she held out her hand to the teen..

Shinji shook his head violently no. "No… no"

Rei shrugged, as if to say 'suite yourself' and stepped off of the balcony, to gently float down to the floor.

"Hurry, push through her AT field!" rasped Motoharu.

Shinji closed his eyes and pushed out with his will. His face began to turn purple, but the orange hexagons surrounding them did not yield.

"It's no good – she's too powerful" he gasped, out of breath.

"Let's go back" Asuka pulled open the door they had come from, only to slam it shut again "Shinji – cover our backs!"

Shinji raised his own at field across the door, "What?"

"The guards are entering the room behind us!" replied Asuka.

"I hope Maika is ok" Motoharu said as he slid to sit on the floor.

"None of us will be ok if we don't stop that thing" yelled Asuka as she peered down at the cluster of conspirators. On closer examination, she saw that they were 3 old men, an old woman, and a – thing – that was more machine than man. The three men were standing, chanting something, as the man-machine and the woman were typing on a computer attached to the back of the glass tube.

"I think that's Lorenzo Kihl – he's the guy who ran SEELE in our timeline" Asuka pointed at the cyborg.

Rei simply stood in front of the glass life support tube, staring at the creature floating inside.

The voices in Shinji head became louder, harded to ignore _'nuclear fusion is a viable source of energy because it generates several orders of magnitude more energy than" _Another voice interrupted_ "the energy barrier to initiate fusion is 0.1Mev." _Another voice _"an He5 atom ejects a neutron at 14.1 Mev.._' the voices all spoke urgently, talking over each other.

SNAP!

Misaka fired off a bolt of lighting, but it just fizzled when it hit Rei's AT field.

The two conspirators sotoped typing and stood back, making a circle with the other three around Rei and the Adam clone. They joined hands and joined in the chanting.

Their voices grew louder, more insistent, but the words were harsh and guttural - they didn't sound like they came from any human language.

"So, what? Do we just sit here, with front row seats to the apocalypse?" asked Motoharu.

"I… I don't know" replied Asuka in a small voice.

Rei and the Adam thing began to glow. The chant started to grow even louder. The harsh sound filled the cavernous room, echoing off of the walls.

Shinji closed his eyes and took a deep breath and raised his hands, as if to push at the reactor.

.

The chanting reached a crescendo.

And all the lights went out.

"Is this it?" sked Misaka.

There was a banging sound from below, and somebody started to yell. The glow from giant fetus in the tube illuminated the conspirators, who looked bewildered.

"Start again!" somebody yelled.

The chanting restarted, but the glow from the Adam began to fade.

"NO! faster!" yelled the cyborg.

The chanting continued. Rei turned to look up at the balcony, at Shinji. He barely glanced back at her – his face was scrunched up in concentration. After a moment she nodded. Then she turned and walked out of the circle.

"NO, NO!"

SPLORCH

The five conspirators converted to LCL.

The teens stood and waited to see if the same fait awaited them.

Nothing happened, except that the AT field in front of them disappeared.

When it did, the lights came back on

As soon as she saw that, Misaka ran down the stairs to the puddle of LCL and sent a continues arc of electricity through it, until the LCL started to smoke and burn "I am an individual. You bastards. I don't want to be part of your insane dumb-ass collective. I worked hard to be my own woman, and there is no way you losers are going to take that away from me!" she roared, pouring on the power.

"Feeling better? Asked Asuka

Misaka took several deep, panting breaths and nodded.

Motoharu turned to Shinji and wheezed "I see you like them crazy."

END

OMAKE:

"Human instrumentality begins in 10 minutes" said Rei as she stepped up onto the railing around the balcony. "Shinji, come, join me" she held out her hand to the teen. "We will rule the galaxy, as brother and sister.

Shinji shook his head violently no. "No… no"

"Ok, how about as Empress and her boy toy?"

END Omake.


	8. Chapter 8-1

Ok, I am going to post 3 micro-chapters to tie up the loose ends in this fic.

If anybody wants to wright in this setting, please feel free.

Chapter 8

"Lets get out of here!" Shinji looked around for a way out.

"Back up the way we came" Asuka pointed up to the balcony from which the teens had just descended

"No – this way" Misaka headed down towards a door leading out on the main floor of the reactor room.

"What? Where are you going?" demanded Asuka

"Computer room"

The rest of the teens trailed after Misaka as she went down a short corridor to a tiny, closet like office with banks of computers.

"Why are we here? Asked Shinji, staggering. Asuka caught him before he fell. He looked exhausted..

"The security cameras recorded us breaking into the building. I traced them to here – if we don't wipe the videos, we could get arrested."

"So, wipe them already." Said Asuka.

There was the sound of feet approaching from out in the corridor. Shinji raised his AT field. Motoharu ducked under the field and took a peak out the door.

"Come out with your hands up!" yelled a voice.

"Guys, we have company."

Misaka concentrated, and a thin bolt of electricity extended from her hand and started playing over the computers, she passed it each computer in turn, soon, the room began to fill with smoke.

"Not helping" proclaimed Asuka as she coughed from the acrid smoke.

Motoharu meanwhile was arranging the furniture and sketching something on the floor.

"Ok, that's all of them" coughed Misaka.

The voice from outside demanded that they surrender.

"So now what? I don't want to kill anybody, but they have guns" said Shinji.

"I can confuse them. It will give us a chance to sneak by. After that, can you keep your AT field up while we escape.?" Motoharu asked Shinji.

"Not for long., that, what I did in the reactor room took a lot out of me"

"What did you do in there?" Asked Misaka.

"Later. Escape first, talk later." Asuka turned to Motoharu, "so, what are you waiting for?"

Motoharu nodded and pronounced two harsh sounding words. All of a sudden, the smoke began to swirl around, and swept through the channel of object that Motoharu had arranged, sweeping out into the corridor in a thick stream,

Outside, there was the sound of coughing and yelling "What the.."

"Now" yelled Motoharu, carefully hiding the rivulet of blood that was coming out of his nose.

The teens ran out of the office, brushing by the guards, who were enveloped in an almost palpable cloud of smoke.

"Run!" yelled Shinji, as he raised his AT field.

"Which way to the stairs? Asked Motoharu.

"This way I think."

The teens rounded a corner, only to be confronted by a trio of security guards.

"Or maybe not."

Before anybody could do anything, the muck monster burst from a vent and swallowed all three guards.

"Ok, that was cool." Motoharu proclaimed

They took off running.

After a couple more wrong turns, they managed to get up and out of the building.

"That was exciting." Asuka said as she panted, catching her breath. Shinji just flopped down on the grass.

The teens were at the old Misaka dormitory, now mostly empty.

"So, I take it everything worked out?" Maika asked a she and the Misaka clone rode up astride cleaning robots, like some new-age cowgirls.

"Yeah. We got there just in time, but Shinji shut the reactor down, somehow."

"Yeah, just exactly what did you do?" asked Asuka, "you just gave the reactor a funny look, and waved your hand, and it shut down."

"Magic?" replied Shinji feebly.

"It wasn't magic, dude." Replied Motoharu with a wet cough., "I know magic, and that wasn't it."

"Ay!" Maika leaped off of her steed and ran to her step-boyfriend's side, "Are you ok?" she asked, leaning in to hold him.

"I'll be ok. Regenerator, remember?" Motoharu turned to the other teens, "What I did with the smoke was magic."

"Which you promised you wouldn't do anymore – it can kill you!" Maika interrupted angrily.

Motoharu shrugged nonchalantly, "So, what DID you do?" he asked, looking intently at Shinji.

"Uhm, I changed the laws of physics?"

"Ya' cann'na change tha laws 'f physics, cap'n" Motoharu replied with a heavy Scottish brogue. The other teens looked at him funny, "Ah, nobody watches the classics anymore."

"Is this connected to Third Impact? And how it.. ended" Asked Asuka somewhat nervously.

Shinji shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, ever since then, I can hear this sort of hum. Sometimes it becomes voices, talking about stuff, other times, it's just a faint noise. But if I concentrate really hard, I can sort of visualize the sound. It's like a big tangled knot. I know that makes no sense, but that's the only way I can explain it" Shinji sat up and pulled his knees to his chest, "And if I push on a part of the tangle, I can change the harmony. After third impact, the sound was… discordant. So I gave a little push to one loop of the tangle, and it just slipped back into place, all on it's own!" Shinji continued, somewhat defensively, "and that was when the world re-started."

"In the reactor room, one of the voices was talking about activation energy, and so I concentrated and followed the voice to the part of the sound that it came from, and yanked on it. Just a little" Shinji paused, "it's the same thing I did with that Level-Upper kid, I changed the activation energy for fusion just a bit, so that the reaction didn't have enough oomph to keep going."

"Wow." Asuka's eyes were big. She was astounded by the implications. Either that, or Shinji playing god was a major turn on for her.

"With a power like that, you could test into level 5 or maybe higher" Maika added.

"No way!" Shinji vehemently shook his head, "I don't want to mess with that. What if I screw up and cause another Impact? Or worse?"

"Uhm, yeah, good thinking!" Motoharu grinned and slapped Shinji on the back. "But I think we should get out of here."

The teens said their good byes and split off – the Misaka clone into the apartment building, Maika and Motoharu one way (with Maika insisting that Motoharu ride on the cleaning bot), and Misaka 10031 and Shinji the other way.

They walked slowly, holding hands.

"Being your girlfriend is very exciting." Said Misaka 10031.

"Yeah, but isn't that supposed to be a Chinese curse?"

"Well, I don't mind. We helped a lot of people today."

"Yeah, I guess…" Shinji paused, "can you wait a moment?"

"Only if you don't go running off again!" replied Misaka sternly.

Shinji paused, "ok, I then why don't you come along?" He grabbed Misaka's hand again and led her down a narrow alley. Half way down, in the otherwise pristine alley, was the muck monster.

Shinji paused and stared at it. The muck monster quivered in place, but didn't do anything. Shinji felt like it was inspecting him as well. Slowly he raised his hand and pressed his palm to the surface of the LCL as at the same time he reached out and tweaked the melody in his head.

SLLUUUPP.

Shinji's empty clothes fell to the ground of the alley

CEP**CEP

"Hello? Anybody here?" Shinji called out. He was standing in what looked like a dirty alleyway, surrounded by graffiti covered walls. The weather was a little cool for the school uniform that he was wearing.

"He, kid" came a voice from behind him

Shinji turned to see a group of five or six tough looking guys. They looked to be in their early twenties. All of them were wearing torn jeans and leather jackets.

"Uhm, hi." Shinji looked at the group, "Uhm, thanks for helping, back there."

One of the boys stepped forward, he carried himself like the leader of the pack. He had a shock of black hair, and a pair of glasses. Unlike the others, he was dressed in a suit. With a shock, Shinji recognized him.

"Dad?"

"Hmm." The young man nodded. The two stood there looking at each other, not saying anything.

"Why didn't you come back? Shinji finally asked.

"Why would I? I have everything I want here. I have my boys. We're like the three musketeers. All for one and one for all." Gendo Rokubungi smiled, "We hang out, get into trouble and start fights, but we have each others back." The smile disappeared.

They continued to stand silently.

"Go on, your place is out there" Gendo finally said.

Shinji nodded.

As Shinji reached for the sound again, Gendo added, "I like your girlfriend."

CEP**CEP

"There you are! Misaka was getting worried…EEP" Misaka finished, blushing and turning away from a naked Shinji who had mysteriously reappeared.

"Oh, ah, sorry!" Shinji grabbed his clothes and pulled them on quick. "Ok, I'm decent" Shinji said, twitching slightly in discomfort – his underwear were on backwards. The big glob of LCL quivered in what could only be mirth.

"Um. What happened?" Misaka asked.

"I'll explain later. But, do you want to say hi to my dad?

END

4 years later

"Keep that harmony from slipping tempos" Index called out as she prodded a magical inscription around a doorway.

Shinji nodded, his face scrunched up in concentration and sweat plastering his hair to his forehead. He hummed something under his breath.

What both of them were focusing on was a doorway with a glowing inscription written around it in Aramaic.

A doorway that SOMETHING was trying to get through. A 'something' that had possessed the Dungeons and Dragons club at UC San Diego and almost managed to get them to summon it.

This side of the door was a typical college dorm. The other side looked like a scene from some psychotic's mind – it hurt to even look at it.

A black tentacle hammered away at a thin shimmering film that blocked the doorway. Shinji cringed but continued humming as he concentrated on maintaining the natural order of things.

"Ok, got it!" Index called out as she stabbed a pencil into the wood of the door, interrupting the inscription.

The whole inscription flared for a moment and then disappeared. As did the otherworldly scene.

Shinji slumped down onto the dorm bed.

"Thanks for your help." Index beamed. She still looked like a 10 year old girl.

"You're welcome" Shinji panted as he slumped across the bed "I can't believe these idiots managed to start the Cthulhu-pocalypse."

Index adjusted her nun's habit "Don't underestimate them – many of these gamers are bright guys, and a couple of them are talented computer programmers, which is not that different from Ritual Magic."

"If you say so" Shinji replied as he staggered up, "but I have classes with a couple of them, and they have no common sense at all."

"which is what brought us here." Speaking of – we better get out before they start waking up" Index headed for the door, "Otherwise there could be awkward questions about what you are doing here with an underage girl." She smirked at Shinji.

CEP**CEP

"So, what brings you America?" Shinji asked as he sipped his soda. The pair were sitting at a McDonalds down the street from Shinji's apartment.

This part of New Sand Diego was a college town, and there were fast food places all over.

"I, well…I needed to get away from Academy City for a while." Index said around a mouthful of whopper, "The gang back there are great people, but it's difficult – they are all getting older, but I still look like a little girl. They're all dating and stuff. So I asked my order for a posting in the US. Speaking of – have you kept in touch with any of the gang? If I come across any more of these magical hooligans, it would be nice to have some help."

"Not so much – I email Motoharu periodically – he's at Tokyo U, and he's double majoring in Criminal Justice and Feng Shui." Shinji slurped up the last of his coke and leaned back. He looked much more confident and relaxed than he had when in high school. "And he's had an internship with a mysterious government organization that he can't talk about online."

"Is he still dating Maika?"

Shinji nodded "Last I heard"

"How about you? Are you still dating Misaka?"

"No, we broke up last year – it's just too difficult keeping up a long distance relationship."

"That's too bad" Sighed Index. "Keep up with this sort of gossip is the closest to dating I'm ever going to get." She looked dejected.

Shinji looked uncomfortable at the thought of 'dating' and "Index' being used in the same sentence. "Well, If you need any help, you have my number. But I got to run – I have a Graduate Psych seminar starting in fifteen minutes"

END


	9. Chapter 8-2

**4 years later**

"Keep that harmony from slipping tempos" Index called out as she prodded a magical inscription around a doorway.

Shinji nodded, his face scrunched up in concentration and sweat plastering his hair to his forehead. He hummed something under his breath.

What both of them were focusing on was a doorway with a glowing inscription written around it in Aramaic.

A doorway that SOMETHING was trying to get through. A 'something' that had possessed the Dungeons and Dragons club at UC San Diego and almost managed to get them to summon it.

This side of the door was a typical college dorm. The other side looked like a scene from some psychotic's mind – it hurt to even look at it.

A black tentacle hammered away at a thin shimmering film that blocked the doorway. Shinji cringed but continued humming as he concentrated on maintaining the natural order of things.

"Ok, got it!" Index called out as she stabbed a pencil into the wood of the door, interrupting the inscription.

The whole inscription flared for a moment and then disappeared. As did the otherworldly scene.

Shinji slumped down onto the dorm bed.

"Thanks for your help." Index beamed. She still looked like a 10 year old girl.

"You're welcome" Shinji panted as he slumped across the bed "I can't believe these idiots managed to start the Cthulhu-pocalypse."

Index adjusted her nun's habit "Don't underestimate them – many of these gamers are bright guys, and a couple of them are talented computer programmers, which is not that different from Ritual Magic."

"If you say so" Shinji replied as he staggered up, "but I have classes with a couple of them, and they have no common sense at all."

"which is what brought us here." Speaking of – we better get out before they start waking up" Index headed for the door, "Otherwise there could be awkward questions about what you are doing here with an underage girl." She smirked at Shinji.

CEP**CEP

"So, what brings you America?" Shinji asked as he sipped his soda. The pair were sitting at a McDonalds down the street from Shinji's apartment.

This part of New Sand Diego was a college town, and there were fast food places all over.

"I, well…I needed to get away from Academy City for a while." Index said around a mouthful of whopper, "The gang back there are great people, but it's difficult – they are all getting older, but I still look like a little girl. They're all dating and stuff. So I asked my order for a posting in the US. Speaking of – have you kept in touch with any of the gang? If I come across any more of these magical hooligans, it would be nice to have some help."

"Not so much – I email Motoharu periodically – he's at Tokyo U, and he's double majoring in Criminal Justice and Feng Shui." Shinji slurped up the last of his coke and leaned back. He looked much more confident and relaxed than he had when in high school. "And he's had an internship with a mysterious government organization that he can't talk about online."

"Is he still dating Maika?"

Shinji nodded "Last I heard"

"How about you? Are you still dating Misaka?"

"No, we broke up last year – it's just too difficult keeping up a long distance relationship."

"That's too bad" Sighed Index. "Keep up with this sort of gossip is the closest to dating I'm ever going to get." She looked dejected.

Shinji looked uncomfortable at the thought of 'dating' and "Index' being used in the same sentence. "Well, If you need any help, you have my number. But I got to run – I have a Graduate Psych seminar starting in fifteen minutes"

END


	10. Chapter 8-3

**3 years later**

"Baka!"

Shinji stopped at the familiar yell. He had just turned around when he was enveloped in a hug by Asuka.

"Why didn't you tell me you were back in Japan? Let me look at you!" Asuka took a step back, holding Shinji at arms length. Shinji looked pretty much the way he always had, just a little taller, and a little more self confident. The High school uniform had been replaced by 'work casual' cants and a button down shirt. Asuka had trimmed her hair into a short, no nonsense look, but otherwise still was a very attractive woman.

"I'm here for the for the wedding." Shinji smiled in bemusement at the former pilot's antics. The two were standing in the shopping district of academy city, and the other pedestrians had to make their way around the impromptu reunion

"You mean the slacker and the maid? You mean that's this week?" Asuka looked befuddled momentarily, then her eyes got big "I have nothing to wear!"

She grabbed Shinji and pulled him down the street "I completely lost track of time – I've been working in the lab crazy hours – I am defending my PhD Thesis next month. Come on, you can help me shop while we talk."

"Uhm, Asuka.." Shinji began hesitantly.

"We can find you a suit too, while we are at it. That is why you were in the shopping district, right?"

"Um, actually, I have a suit, I do need to get a present, though"

"Hah!" Asuka smirked, "Leaving things for the last minute like always!"

"I don't.." Shinji began

"So what are you doing with yourself nowadays?" Asuka interrupted as she power walked into a department store.

"I, ah, have a small practice in Osaka" Shinji replied.

Asuka paused "Practice? You? A lawyer?"

"No," laughed Shinji, "I am a psychiatrist. It well, it comes really naturally to me. I have always been good at listening, and since, um, you know, I have had a really deep understanding of people" _'especially with my voices providing added perspective'_

"Hah! I never saw that coming" snorted Asuka. "Come on, I'll help you pick a present, before I make you carry all my stuff."

"Uhm, as to that.." Shinji replied, scratching the back of his head.

"What you think you can find a present on your own? You may not be a manly man, but you still suck at shopping." Asuka was just turning to scan the aisles for _cookware 'that's always a good wedding present'_ when something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

She had had just turned around to look at Shinji again when she saw Misaka wrap her arms around Asuka's intended shopping mule and plant a rather intense kiss on his lips.

"Ok. I never saw that coming either."

Asuka waited for the two to come up for air.

Pause

"Uhm, guys, you're drawing attention."

Pause

"Shinji? You're embarrassing me."

Pause

"Uh, so, um, how long have you been together again?

Misaka 10031 turned to face Asuka, slipping a possessive arm around Shinji's waist. "Hi, Asuka. You here for the wedding?"

"No, I live here." Scowled the red head, her annoyance at being ignored building up.

Shinji smiled happily at her, "we got back together a couple of months ago." He turned to look at his girlfriend, who gave him a little nod, "We were going to wait until the wedding reception, but we might as well start now, since we have you here – will you do us the honor of being Misaka's maid of Honor?

Asuka's scream was hear halfway across Tokyo.

END

While this is not the end of Shinji and Misaka's adventures, it is the end of my story.


End file.
